Postby bluefete » June 4th, 2014, 12:04 pm
Some good history. A bit long but interesting.
THE BEGINNINGS OF FREEMASONRY IN TRINIDAD
By LIONEL AUGUSTINE SEEMUNGAL, LL.B., M.M., Lodge United Brothers, No. 251
INTRODUCTION
Many may well be astonished to hear that Trinidad was one of the
very last islands in the West Indies to receive the Craft of
Freemasonry. The islands of Antigua, St Kitts, Barbados, Martinique
and Jamaica were ahead by almost half a century.
The obvious reason that jumps to mind is that Trinidad was a Spanish
island, Roman Catholic in religion, and that accordingly the Spanish
Inquisition barred the advent of Freemasonry to its shores. That
reason would be quite wrong. The Inquisition never operated in
Trinidad; Freemasonry came here in Spanish times and was not
persecuted and last of all, it was brought by Roman Catholics.
What then was the reason? It was simply this. ... that the island of
Trinidad was too poverty-stricken to support the Craft until the
closing decades of the 18th century. Let us examine this in some
more detail.
THE POVERTY OF TRINIDAD
Trinidad was discovered by Christopher Columbus in the year 1498,
before many of the other West Indian islands were discovered.
Unfortunately, it became the personal property of the King of Spain
instead of State property. The King was not interested in developing
any colonies as such. He was only concerned with acquiring gold.
Trinidad had no gold and so was useless to him, as well as his
successors.
Moreover, it was believed that there was a fabled golden city of El
Dorado somewhere in South America. Trinidad was very conveniently
situated as a jumping-off ground for expeditions into the wilds of
South America. There were in Trinidad aboriginal Indians who could
be captured and forced into slave labour for this purpose. So
Trinidad was mercilessly raided for man-power and no attempt was
made at first to develop its resources. Later feeble attempts met
with disaster. In the year 1717, the very year that the first Grand
Lodge in the world was formed in London, cacao was begun as a staple
crop. Ten years later, the crop failed and a 60 year blight of
poverty descended upon the island. In 1733, some 6 years after the
crop failure, the revenue dropped to the appallingly low figure of
$1,217.00. By 1740, even the members of the Cabildo, the governing
body in Trinidad, had hardly a presentable suit, among the whole lot
of them, to wear to church.
The aboriginal Indian population dropped sharply in numbers,
decimated by smallpox. By 1757, St Joseph, the capital had fallen
into ruins. To use the words of Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan (Part
I, Chapter 47), in Trinidad there were "no arts; no letters; no
society; and what is worse, continual fear and danger of violent
death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and
short. "The entire population was 2,813 persons less than 2 per
square mile!!
THE BRITISH AND FRENCH ISLANDS
In striking contrast to the neglect of Trinidad by the King of
Spain, the British more so, and the French less so, had made
intensive efforts to develop their own West Indian islands. By the
year 1700, the British had poured the staggering sum of 70 million
pounds into their Caribbean possessions. almost four times as much
as they had put into India and the East Indies. The returns on that
investment were manifold. In 1700, the exports of Barbados, a mere
166 square miles in area, exceeded those of all the other colonies
of England in the Western Hemisphere put together and this included
the exports of the British Colonies in North America! The island
itself was valued at a higher figure than the vast expanses of New
England, New York and Pennsylvania lumped together.
The other British islands of Antigua, St Kitts, Montserrat and
Jamaica were not far behind. Freemasonry found the ground there
already well tilled: the economic and financial climate was
favourable. So Lodges sprung up in Antigua in 1738, in Martinique in
the same year, in St Kitts and Jamaica in 1739, and in Barbados in
1740.
In those years Trinidad was still an appalling wilderness, living at
the edge of utter starvation. Freemasonry could not flower in such
barren soil.
THE WAY UP
In the year 1777, a Frenchman from Grenada named Phillipe Rowne Rose
de St Laurent visited Trinidad. The British were making it pretty
hot for the French in the islands they had conquered from them and
the French wanted to emigrate. In 1783, and again in 1786, St
Laurent got a charter from the King of Spain giving very favourable
conditions to French Roman Catholic immigrants to Trinidad. The
French poured in, and in 1787, the exports from Trinidad leapt to
over 300 thousand dollars. By 1789, the year of the French
Revolution, the population had soared to 10,422 persons and four
years later it was 16,000. In 1794, after a bare ten years, the
export trade reached the respectable total of one million dollars.
Trinidad had now attained the financial, economic and social
position to support the Craft of Masonry.
FREEMASONRY ARRIVES
In the normal course of events, many more years might have elapsed
before the Craft finally arrived. But its coming was given a sharp
impetus by the scourge of war and revolution in the West Indies. For
a long time the West Indies had been the theatre of war for the
British, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch. Now the French
Revolutionary Government in Paris began to send their administrators
to the West Indies. The wealthy planters and the Royalists would
have none of these revolutionary types. Internal troubles broke out
in the French islands and the British, capitalising on the
situation, swooped in. They were welcomed. Better to be under even
the hated British than under Frenchmen who shouted about "Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity". Anyway, the British Isles provided a
wonderful market for French sugar. All this infuriated the
Revolutionary government in Paris. To send their fleet to their
treacherous islands would invite defeat at the hands of the powerful
British naval forces. They therefore unleashed their secret weapon -
a mulatto born in Marseilles named Victor Hughes... one of the most
terrible men the West Indies has ever seen. It was Hughes who sent
Freemasonry pell-mell from St Lucia into Trinidad. Before
considering how he did this, let us see what was the state of
Freemasonry in St Lucia.
FREEMASONRY IN ST LUCIA
We have already seen that Freemasonry came to Martinique as early as
1738. By 1766 it was in Guadeloupe. St Lucia was comparatively
backward in this respect among the French islands. It was occupied
by the British from 1778 to 1782 and among the British regiments
were many with Lodges in them. These must have stimulated interest
in Freemasonry in that island. When it was handed back to France in
1783, many of the French soldiers, brought in from Martinique and
Guadeloupe to man the militia, were already Masons, some possessing
the high degree of Knight Rose Croix. Within the next five years,
four Lodges were warranted by the Grand Orient of France in St
Lucia... Le Choix Reuni in 1784, L'Harmonie Fraternelle in 1785, Les
Freres Unis in 1788 and Le Heureuse Reunion in the same year.
LES FRERES UNIS
The third of these Lodges, Les Freres Unis, was none other than our
present Lodge United Brothers, No. 251 S.C. now at Mount Moriah.
Seven French Masons, three of them holding the degree of Rose Croix,
sent a petition to the Grand Orient of France, dated the 27th June
1786. For some unknown reason, the warrant was not signed until the
7th February 1788, but it was made retroactive to the 27th June
1787. The Brethren in St Lucia did not waste this period of waiting.
They built a Temple in the district of Micoud on the southern area
of St Lucia. On the 30th May 1789 the Temple was consecrated, the
Lodge erected and the officers installed. On the day of consecration
the Lodge numbered 28 members, one of whom was a Scotsman. All the
others were French, mostly from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Among the
founders was a 40-year-old Master Mason born in 1752, in Martinique.
He was appointed the 2nd Master of Ceremonies on Consecration night
and was an officer in the French Militia. He was the Mason who six
years later, in 1795, was to flee for his life to Trinidad. He was
not the only one to flee; the big difference was that he took the
Charter of Les Freres Unis with him to Trinidad. His name was Benoit
Dert.
VICTOR HUGHUES
The man who was at the root of Benoit Dert's flight to Trinidad was
the terrible Victor Hughues, of whom we have already heard. Space
does not permit a proper consideration of this remarkable man.
Suffice it to say that a Scotsman in Trinidad, writing 44 years
later, in 1838, said of him: "This extraordinary man united the
dauntless activity, the recklessness and restlessness of Napoleon,
to the ferocity, vindictiveness and sanguinary disposition of
Robespierre, Danton and Marat!!!" Everyone must know of Napoleon.
All that needs to be added for those who do not know the history of
the French Revolution was that Robespierre, Danton and Marat were
the brilliant and blood thirsty leaders of that Revolution who made
the guillotine into that infamous and notorious engine of death and
destruction. Hughues ran rings around the British, the French
planters and the French aristocracy in the French West Indies. With
consummate and ferocious artistry, he encouraged the poor French
whites, the free French coloureds and the slaves to band together
and wipe out the Royalists and the planters. Death, destruction,
pillage, looting and burning ravaged the French islands. The Temple
of Les Freres Unis in Micoud was razed to the ground in 1795.
Brethren were guillotined. Benoit Dert snatched up the Charter of
Les Freres Unis and fled to Trinidad where his brother Dominique
Dert was already resident. Freemasonry had come to Trinidad, borne
on the wings of death and terror.
THE RECONSTRUCTION
Benoit Dert was by no means the only Mason who had fled to Trinidad
for his life, nor was St Lucia the only island which provided
refugees for Trinidad. They came in from Martinique, Guadeloupe and
above all from that ravaged "Pearl of the Caribbean", Haiti, then
known as San Domingo. In 1795, Benoit Dert summoned some of these
Brethren to meet at a building at the corner of Duncan and Upper
Prince Street and there Les Freres Unis was reborn, but it was a sad
rebirth. The Grand Orient of France had been smashed to bits in the
French Revolution and its Grand Master, Duke Phillip of Orleans,
guillotined. For two years, from 1795 to 1797, the Trinidad Brethren
met in Duncan Street, awaiting the rebirth of the Grand Orient.
Duncan Street soon acquired the name "Rue Trois Chandelles" from the
three candles which burnt at the Lodge gates on meeting nights. Just
as contact with the Grand Orient became feasible, an event occurred
which rendered such a course highly dangerous. The British invaded
and captured Trinidad in the year 1797.
THE SWING TO PENNSYLVANIA
Thomas Picton who was appointed the first Governor of Trinidad had
no love for Frenchmen or Spaniards, at the best. Moreover, he had
been appointed in a most remarkable Colony. It had never been owned
by France but was totally and utterly French in everything but laws
and government, which was Spanish. The Frenchmen warred among
themselves. There were several quite distinct sectors among them...
the Royalists and the planters who banded together, the
revolutionary poor white French as well as free French Coloureds who
fought the first group and the French slaves who stood poised to
take either or both of them if the occasion permitted. Picton had
few troops and these were falling like flies from malarial and other
epidemics. He handled his problems by building a gallows at the foot
of Charlotte Street, near Independence Square, and suspending all
trouble-makers by the neck about a foot or so from the ground. When
occasion demanded he cut off a few ears or noses. In no time at all,
Picton put the fear of God in everyone... including the members of
Les Freres Unis. Not much hope of rejoining the Grand Orient; Picton
would consider that as traffic with France, the enemy, and do
something drastic about it. Masons who had fled here from Haiti (San
Domingo) had belonged to Lodges in that island under the Grand Lodge
of Pennsylvania. An American Grand Lodge was much safer than the
Grand Orient of France. On the 13th March 1798, the Brethren of Les
Freres Unis signed a Petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for
acceptance under that Grand Lodge. The petition had nine
signatories, one of whom, once more, was a Scotsman. Benoit Dert,
now holding the Rose Croix Degree, signed as Worshipful Master. The
petition was written by the Secretary, one Vincent Patrice, born in
Martinique in 1759, then holding the degree of Maitre Ecossais...
that is. .. the degree of Scotch Master. This same Patrice was to
become perhaps the greatest Mason Trinidad has ever produced.
THE WORKINGS OF LES FRERES UNIS (1795-1798)
Certain documents, which have mercifully survived, give us some idea
of the workings of Les Freres Unis from 1795 to 1798. Unfortunately
these cannot be set out in extenso, but the following can be deduced
therefrom:
(1) Both the Rite Francais of the Grand Orient consisting of
seven degrees and the Adonhiramite Rite of twelve degrees were
worked. In both, the highest degree was that of the Rose Croix.
Accordingly, the workings of the Rose Croix Degree in Trinidad are
as old as the Craft Degrees in this island.
(2) The Symbolic Voyages which are still worked today at Lodge
United Brothers were worked in Trinidad from the start of the Craft
here. They were in the official ritual of the Grand Orient settled
in 1786, and sent to St Lucia.
(3) Undoubtedly other French initiatory practices contained in
the two Rites were worked. Most of these have disappeared from the
workings of Lodge United Brothers, and particularly since the year
1848 when the British element became dominant in the Lodge.
UNDER PENNSYLVANIA (1798-1820)
On the 28th October 1798, Les Freres Unis was inaugurated under the
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, after a meeting of the 20th October
when the acceptance by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was
communicated. We have a very full account of the Consecration, as
indeed we have of the Consecration of St Lucia in 1789.
Vincent Patrice acted as Secretary up to 1801 and became the Master
in 1804 when the first Temple on Mount Moriah was consecrated and
the first Royal Arch Chapter formed under the Craft Charter from
Pennsylvania. By this year however, Les Freres Unis was no longer
alone in Trinidad. it had been joined by another Lodge the first
English-speaking Lodge in Trinidad most unbelievably, an Irish Lodge
which came here from a French island, Martinique, of all places.
The name of the Lodge was Union and its number on the Register of
the Grand Lodge of Ireland was No. 690. How did an Irish Lodge
happen to be in a French island, and when and why did it come to
Trinidad?
LODGE UNION, NO. 690 I.C.
Less than thirty-four years after this Lodge came to Trinidad, Lodge
Union, No. 690 I.C., was dormant. It was erased in 1858, though it
was effectively dormant by 1836. Even during this thirty- four year
period, it went dormant more than once. In that short period it has
provided, and still provides, headaches for Masonic historians all
over the world. It was twice involved in incidents which had serious
repercussions in the Grand Lodge of Ireland. Regrettably, its full
story will have to wait for some other day, but it can be here said
that it caused the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1823 to issue a
thunderous edict to its Provincial Grand Lodge in Barbados against
colour prejudice in Freemasonry.
That edict caused the death of that Provincial Grand Lodge. The
number 690 I.C. was first issued to a military Lodge in the 51st
Regiment, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, on the 4th
September 1788. In 1796, eight years later, the number was most
unaccountably transferred to a group of Irishmen in Martinique,
although the 51st Regiment never even crossed the Atlantic, and
continued, after 1796, to work Lodges under three jurisdictions.
That is the first headache which has raised serious problems in the
history of Irish Masonry.
Again, what were Irishmen doing in a French island? The answer is
quite simple. In 1794 the British captured Martinique. In the wake
of the conquest, Englishmen, Scotsmen and Irishmen poured into this
rich island to exploit the Frenchmen for all they were worth, as
they had done in St Lucia a decade before. Lodge 690 I.C. was formed
from these adventurers, some of whom, honesty compels us to confess,
were not very nice or very honest persons. Certainly they could not
have been very popular with the French for when, by the Peace of
Amiens in 1802, Martinique was returned to the French, they bolted
for Trinidad at high speed.
The Charter was brought here by Bro. P. William Leonard who was the
W.M. in 1801 in Martinique. On the 12th November 1802, the first
installation of officers in Trinidad was held, and the first return
to the Grand Lodge of Ireland was made on the 1st December 1803.
And here comes the second headache. For some reason, the transfer to
Trinidad was never notified to the Grand Lodge of Ireland until the
12th January 1811. Thus every book of authority on Masonry which
mentions Lodge Union, puts it as coming to Trinidad in 1811. This is
incorrect, as can be irrefutably demonstrated. Even the Register of
the Grand Lodge of Ireland itself is incorrect.
MASONRY IN TRINIDAD UNTIL 1820
In order to keep this paper within reasonable limits, it is proposed
to stop at the end of the first twenty-five years of Freemasonry in
Trinidad... that is at the year 1820. Even for these twenty-five
years, only the barest sketch can be given and regrettably, some
exciting developments in the 1820's cannot be dealt with.
Almost from 1802, the Lodge of Frenchmen and the Lodge of Irishmen
entered into a relationship of the utmost harmony, which was to last
until the Irish Lodge went dormant for the last time. However, one
gains the impression that Les Freres Unis was always the dominant
one in the relationship, being almost like a father to Lodge Union.
On Friday, the 20th September 1805, for example, the two Lodges held
a joint meeting to try a former member of Les Freres Unis for
perjury. His name was Charles Hugon and he had affiliated to Les
Freres Unis in January 1800 from a Military Lodge named The Faithful
Brethren. He had, however, ceased to be an active member in 1802.
The particulars of the charge were that Charles Hugon had betrayed
the secrets of the Craft to a non- Mason named Montrichard in
exchange for two dollars and six bottles of porter; and had
compounded his felony by uttering injurious allegations against the
Craft, adding the ultimate insult by declaring that curiosity alone
prompted him to become a Mason. The decision was that he be
henceforth denied admittance to any Lodge in Trinidad. The decision
certainly did not harm his finances for, eighteen years later in
1823, the local newspapers indicate that he was a prosperous
businessman, rigorously suing Masons who were indebted to him and
levying on their properties. Les Freres Unis continued until 1813,
working both its Lodge and its Royal Arch Chapter under the Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania. In 1812, an event most disturbing to the
Lodge had taken place. Britain and America had gone to war.
It has been stated that the war led to difficulty of communication
with Pennsylvania and that this led Les Freres Unis to apply in 1813
to the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a Charter. In fact the reason was
quite different. By 1813, the Frenchmen had painfully won the
confidence of the English Governors as to their loyalty to Great
Britain. The new Governor, Sir Ralph James Woodford, a young man of
29 appointed in 1813, took a very dim view of revolutionaries in
general. .. even the South American ones against his old enemy
Spain... and he was certainly going to take a very dim view of any
Masonic Frenchmen in Trinidad who kept up contact with the enemy
American "Colonials" who had the temerity to declare war against the
British.
Thus the move towards Scotland was a wise one, not of choice, but
dictated by the circumstances. The global picture shows that the
Brethren of Les Freres Unis were quite happy to remain with
Pennsylvania. They never notified Pennsylvania that they had got a
Charter from Scotland although the archives of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania shows correspondence as late as 1814, when the war had
ended. in fact, the Lodge remained on the Register of the U.S. Grand
Lodge until 1820... So THAT LES FRERES UNIS WAS UNDER Two GRAND
LODGES BETWEEN 1813 and 1820!
What is more, Les Freres Unis never made any return of Members to
the Grand Lodge of Scotland until the 6th June 1821... nearly eight
years after the warranting by Scotland! This and other factors would
seem to indicate that until about 1820, the Lodge had not quite made
up its mind whether to desert Pennsylvania and move to Scotland, or
to stick to Pennsylvania. In 1820, the die was irrevocably cast.
Pennsylvania removed Les Freres Unis from its Register and the
following year, the first return of members was made to Scotland.
The first name on this return was that of Vincent Patrice, by this
time the "Grand Old Man of Masonry in Trinidad" and the " Lord of
the Higher Degrees".
THE HIGHER DEGREES (1813-1820)
The swing towards Scotland had an immediate and marked effect on the
Higher Degrees. A petition was presented by a number of Brethren
headed by Vincent Patrice to the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland to
form a Grand Assembly of Knight Templars in Trinidad. This was
granted on the 12th January 1814, and was the first Scottish
Encampment outside of Scotland in the whole world.
Since the Royal Arch Degree was worked as an intermediate degree on
the way to Templary under the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland, the
first Royal Arch Chapter of 1804 was closed down and a new Royal
Arch Chapter named the "Trinidad Holy Royal Arch Chapter" opened by
virtue of the Templar warrant. This took place in 1814, and Vincent
Patrice who had been the First Principal on the opening of the 1804
Pennsylvania Chapter, again went into the First Principal's Chair in
1814 at the start of the new Chapter.
Oddly enough, the Companions appeared to have continued to work the
American Ritual from Pennsylvania, since the American order of the
Principal Officers was retained as well as their names. .. which was
quite different from the practice in Scotland.
When, in 1816, it was decided in Scotland to form a new and separate
body to govern the Royal Arch Degree, the Trinidad Encampment of
Knight Templars was among the bodies invited to attend the
preliminary meetings and participate in the formation of the present
governing body, the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.
Unfortunately no representatives were sent by the Assembly and
Trinidad lost the honour of being a founder member of the Supreme
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.
FIRST DORMANCY OF UNION LODGE, NO. 690 I.C.
In the year 1817, for no known reason, Lodge Union went into its
first dormancy which lasted until June 1821. There was a terrible
epidemic of yellow fever in 1817, causing the death of the Senior
Warden of Union; however this epidemic did not halt activity in
other Masonic Bodies. Seth Driggs of whom we shall hear more, gave
no reason for the dormancy.
VINCENT PATRICE AND SETH DRIGGS (1817-1820)
The history of Freemasonry from 1817 to 1820, and indeed for quite a
few years more, revolves around the personalities of Vincent Patrice
and Seth Driggs. They were of different nationalities, of quite
different backgrounds and even of quite different generations; the
only thing they had in common is that they were both pharmacists.
Yet they were inextricably intertwined in Masonry. Much of Drigg's
sensational advancement in the Higher Degrees was undoubtedly due to
Patrice's liking for him.
Patrice was born in Martinique in 1759; Driggs was born in
Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.A., on the 14th December 1792. Patrice
was initiated in the famous Lodge Parfaite Union of St Pierre, the
second Lodge founded in the West Indies, as far back as December
1785, before Driggs was born. No one has discovered where Seth
Driggs was initiated, though two of his brothers were initiated in
the famous Connecticut Lodge of St John's, No. 2, in their home town
of Middletown.
One of these brothers, Dr Joseph Driggs, came to Trinidad around
1808 and went through the offices and chair of Lodge Union 690 I.C.
It was he who brought his younger brother Seth Driggs to Trinidad in
1812 to run a pharmacy he bad opened on Frederick Street.
Seth suddenly appeared on the Masonic scene in Trinidad as Scribe E
of the second Royal Arch Chapter in a newspaper notice of 1817. It
is known that he had gone to New York in the interim and had been
married there in 1818. Be that as it may, in March 1819, he wrote
the first Masonic book ever printed and published in Trinidad, "The
Freemason's Sure Guide and Pocket Companion" and dedicated it to
Vincent Patrice. This book is the only source of much of the history
of early Freemasonry in Trinidad, though there are some errors in
it.
DEGREES IN TRINIDAD BEFORE 1820 A.D.
Though the start of Freemasonry in Trinidad was late, it was
incredibly rich. Unlike most of the other West Indian islands, it
was not derived from one single source. It poured into Trinidad in
rapid succession from France, the United States, Ireland, Scotland
and the French West Indies.
From the year 1795 France provided two distinct Rites, the Rite
Francais of seven degrees and the Adonhiramite Rite of twelve
degrees. As the first three degrees of these two Rites were
identical the degrees of Apprentice, Campagnon and Maitre, which are
of course, the E.A., F.C. and M.M. degrees, these two Rites provided
seventeen quite distinct degrees. In 1798, Pennsylvania provided
three more degrees which were first utilised by the founding of the
first Royal Arch Chapter in Trinidad in 1804; the degrees of Mark
Master, Past Master and the Royal Arch. In 1802, Ireland provided
through Lodge Union, No. 690 I.C., the Irish version of the first
three degrees. Les Freres Unis did not seem to be greatly affected
in the matter of degrees, by its transfer to Scotland in 1813, as it
continued to work in the French way and to work degrees quite
unknown to the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
From the Royal Grand Conclave in Scotland came the degree of Knight
Templar in 1814 and from that year, the Royal Arch degrees were
worked in Trinidad, no longer under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
as from 1804, but by virtue of the Knight Templar Charter. Thus,
less than twenty years after the commencement of Freemasonry in
Trinidad, 21 degrees had been already worked here. Some two or three
years later, and certainly not later than the year 1818, Seth Driggs
(the American born in Middletown, Connecticut, but residing in Port
of Spain) introduced some further degrees... in all, 7 in number.
Some of these are no longer worked anywhere in the world and by
1850, historians were vainly searching in various parts of the world
to discover even the subject matter in their rituals. Driggs formed
a Cryptic Rite Body in Trinidad with himself as Past Thrice
Illustrious Grand Master, and conferred the degrees of Most
Excellent Master, Super-Excellent Master and Royal Master. As the
earliest Cryptic Rite Body in the world was founded in 1810 in New
York, Trinidad was one of the earliest places in the world to have a
Cryptic Rite Body, as such. There is every indication that Driggs
got these degrees on a visit to New York and that he got them from
the very founder of the first Cryptic Council in New York... Brother
Thomas Lownds. There is direct evidence of contact between Lownds
and Driggs as late as the year 1822. As an incident to the Cryptic
Degrees, Driggs conferred the degree of the Knights of the Red
Cross, and the degree of the Knights of Malta as an appendant degree
to the degree of Knights Templar. Little is known today about two
other degrees in the series which he introduced... the Knights of
the Christian Mark and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Driggs
went on to mention in his book 12 other degrees in the series, but
did not indicate whether these were ever conferred in Trinidad.
These were set out in the 1819 book, "The Freemasons' Sure Guide",
and include such unusual names as the Knights of Calatrava, the
Knights of St Michael and the Knights of the Annunciation of the
Virgin Mary.
VINCENT PATRICE AND THE 33RD DEGREE
Vincent Patrice kept up his contacts with the French West Indian
Islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. in these French islands the
higher degrees were widely worked. When the first Supreme Council of
the 33rd Degree Rite was founded in Charleston, South Carolina, in
1801, a Council for the French West Indies was also founded with
Count Auguste de Grasse-Tilly at the head, as Sovereign Grand
Commander. De Grasse-Tilly, who was the son of the famous Admiral de
Grasse, defeated by Admiral Rodney in the Battle of the Saints,
founded the Supreme Council for France and another for Spain. The
French Council was also connected with the French West Indian
Islands. At some time before 1819, Vincent Patrice was made a
Sovereign Grand Inspector General... that is a holder of the 33rd
Degree. That fact is not only mentioned in Drigg's book of 1819, but
is found later in the Minutes of Les Freres Unis in the Minute Book
for the year 1822-1826. Patrice, sometime between the year 1819 and
the year 1822 founded the Rose Croix Chapter "Les Freres Unis de la
Trinite", working the 18th degree and the Sovereign Consistory of
the Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, "Les Freres Unis de la
Trinite'", working the 32nd degree. These were degrees of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The first amazing feature is
that today, more than 150 years later, the highest degree in that
Rite worked in Trinidad is the 30th; the second amazing feature is
that Vincent Patrice was the first 33rd degree holder in Trinidad
with a lead of nearly 110 years on the second, Frederick Owen Webb,
who received the 33rd degree in 1927!
CONCLUSION
By the end of the first twenty-five years of Masonry in Trinidad,
every degree that is worked today in Trinidad, except the Secret
Master in the Cryptic Degrees and the Knight of the East and West in
the Red Cross Council had already been worked. More, many degrees
had by then been worked which are no longer worked in Trinidad
today. Indeed some have been completely forgotten and their rituals
are either totally unavailable at present, or irretrievably lost. In
the last hundred and fifty years the Craft may have increased in
numbers of Brethren, of Lodges and of Appendant Bodies, but in the
extent of degrees worked and in their bewildering variety, we cannot
hope to touch our predecessors of the first two decades of the last
century. They were far ahead of us.
