AFRICAN AMERICANA: FREEMASONRY., HILTON, JOHN T. 1801-1864.

AFRICAN AMERICANA: FREEMASONRY.
HILTON, JOHN T. 1801-1864. Document Signed ("John T. Hilton), 1p, 4to, Boston, 1826, being a certificate of initiation as a Third Degree Mason, decorated with columns of woodcut architectural motifs at left, right and top, pierced with a silk ribbon along the left edge, with residue of a wax seal at upper left, soiled, fold creases with slight losses, laid down on Japan paper.

The first African American Masonic Lodge, African Lodge No. 459, was established in Boston by free black abolitionist Prince Hall (c.1735-1807) on July 3, 1776. Hall and 14 other men of color had become Masons on March 6, 1775, but their lodge was associated with a British infantry regiment, which fled Boston after the Siege of Dorchester Heights in 1776. Their newly formed African Lodge petitioned the Grand Lodge of England in 1784 for a charter, receiving the designation of Lodge No. 459. In 1847 it was named Prince Hall Grand Lodge in honor of its founder. John T. Hilton signs here as Warden of the Lodge. He was a noted abolitionist and founding member of the Massachusetts General Colored Association, and his wife Lavinia was a noted member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Below Hilton's signature are the signatures of secretaries Walker Lewis, Aaron Gaul and Isaac Barbadoes. The latter was also notably active in the abolitionist cause. Both Hilton and Barbadoes were associates of William Lloyd Garrison.