Fraternal Greetings:

Welcome to our web site from the
office of the Grand Master.

Our hope is that your inquiry while visiting our site will be informative and enlightening. As you browse the site, take note that we are striving to uphold the true principles of freemasonry by our efforts to support the communities in which we reside. It will remain our firm goal to award scholarships, dispense charity to the needy, vigorously support the widows and orphans and continue to let our light shine so all can see the good work we are duty bound to perform.

We continue to share the knowledge and pride of the Masonic legacy Prince Hall forged for us. At this site you can also review the history of the development of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Connecticut which is a rather unique account. You may wish to read it as it follows this greeting.

Again, from the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge Officers of Connecticut, and its Appendant and Concordant Bodies, we say welcome.

- History -

Africans and other world travelers during the 17th and 18th centuries brought with them or were introduced to Freemasonry within the Western Hemisphere (North and South America) and came to share these secrets and symbols with inhabitants of the Caribbean and adjacent areas.

There is general agreement that Freemasonry already was well established as the British and Spanish explorers invaded these communities during the mid-1600’s. It is very likely that much in advance of ‘slavery’ in the Americas, men of color (although often at great risk) were at work as craftsmen, laboring in and enjoying the fruits of the vineyards of Freemasonry. The History of Freemasonry by Robert Gould, among others, reveals that Freemasonry had been introduced among the islands of the West Indies during the 18th century not long after the establishment of the historic Grand Lodge in 1717. However, this so-called Union of the Moderns and Ancients promoted the fraternity, at this time, as a powerful, predominantly white, upper-middle class organization.

Fifteen ‘free black men’: Prince Hall (Cyrus Johnson, Bueston Slinger, Prince Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff Ruform, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, Cato Speain, Boston Smith, Peter Best, Forten Howard and Richard Titley) were initiated into Lodge #441, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army garrisoned the Castle William Island, Boston Harbor on March 6, 1775 (History of African Lodge #459 – MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge Massachusetts) with authority (1776) ‘to meet as African Lodge #1, to go in procession on St. John’s Day, and as a Lodge to bury their dead; but they could not confer degrees nor perform any other Masonic ‘work’’.
For eight years these Brethren, together with others who had received their degrees elsewhere, (thirty-three Masons by 1779) assembled and enjoyed their limited privileges as Masons. Prince Hall petitioned (March 2, 1784) the Grand Lodge of England for a warrant or charter. The Warrant to African Lodge #459 of Boston was granted on September 29, 1784 (delivered in Boston April 29, 1787) and was officially organized on May 6, 1787, and became the ‘Mother Lodge’ of Prince Hall Freemasonry.

The African Grand Lodge was organized in 1808 in New York City at the meeting of African Lodge #459 of Boston, African Lodge #459 of Philadelphia and Hiram Lodge #3 of Providence, Rhode Island, and later its name was changed to PRINCE HALL GRAND LODGE. Four Masonic Grand Bodies trace their origin directly to the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts: number two, Pennsylvania in 1815; number three, New York in 1845; number eleven, Rhode Island in 1858; and number twenty-eight, Georgia in 1870 (Harry A. Williamson, ‘A Chronological History of Prince Hall Masonry of Prince Hall Masonry’ The New York Age, 1934). Connecticut (1873) was one of four Grand Masonic Bodies set up by New York.
The 1875 Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge F&AM of Connecticut, reveal that in June 1873 the representatives or delegates of Widow’s Son Lodge (New Haven), Eureka Lodge (Norwich), and Excelsior Lodge (Hartford) gave notice to the Most Worshipful United Grand Lodge of New York, then in session with MWGM Walter H. Burr presiding in the City of New York, and under whose jurisdiction they were working, of their intention of organizing and establishing a Grand Lodge of Connecticut. The four Lodges forming the Grand Lodge were Lodges which had been duly constituted and were holding warrants at that time under The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the State of New York. These Lodges in the New York Registry were known as Widow's Son Lodge #10 of New Haven, Connecticut, warranted in 1858; Eureka Lodge #15 of Norwich, Connecticut, warranted in 1859; Excelsior Lodge #16 of Hartford, Connecticut, warranted in 1859; and Doric Lodge #33 of Bridgeport, Connecticut, warranted in 1871.

On January 7, 1874 MWGM Walter H. Burr (New York) had the honor of installing the first principal officer, Brother William H. Layne as Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge F&AM, State of Connecticut. The first communication of this newly formed Grand Lodge was held at the Masonic Temple in New Haven, Connecticut on October 4, 1874.

"Be not weary in well doing"
R.W. Floyd L. Bass,
Grand Historian