Series of Letters on Free Masonry, A.
[Crocker, Hannah Mather.] A Series of Letters on Free Masonry by a Lady of Boston. Boston: John Eliot, 1815.
8vo.; string-tied; irregular page lengths; edgewear; some soiling.
Hannah Mather Crocker’s defense of the Society of Free Masons against charges of excessive revelry in Boston, written in 1810 as a series of letters and published five years later. The book, clearly written for a female audience, also provides glimpses into what was likely the first Masonic extension for women, the Women’s Lodge (sometimes referred to as “St. Ann’s Lodge”), over which Crocker presided.
Crocker acquainted herself with free-masonry as a young woman; in her letters, she claims she had knowledge of the craft because “…in the younger part of life, [she] did investigate some of the principles of Free-Masonry” to assuage the fears of her friends whose husbands were Masons. The mother of ten children, she took up writing after the death of her husband in 1797. Crocker recalls the Lodge:
I had the honour some years ago to preside as Mistress of a similar institution, consisting of females only; we held a regular lodge, founded on the original principles of true ancient masonry, so far as was consistent for the female character. We recognized the Brotherhood as preeminent, as may be seen from several Addresses and Songs that were printed in the Centinel...The prime inducement for forming the lodge, was a desire for cultivating the mind in the most useful branches of science, and cherishing a love of literature; for at that period, female education was at a very low ebb…by some [they] were esteemed as only “mere domestic animals” (8).
Short Letters also prints a “Short Address” and a “Song” on Masonic principles, both by Crocker.
Source: Notable American Women. Vol. 1. p. 406-407.
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