The History of the Rite in North America

The history of this Rite is replete with all the mystery and secrecy expected of Masonry, even to the extent that we ourselves are generally not familiar with our own origins! It is generally accepted that the Select Master Degree first appeared in North America under the auspices of a Companion Phillip P. Eckel, in Philadelphia in the years immediately after the American War of Independence. Nothing much is known of his activities in regard to this Degree, or of the source from which it came. It is believed he was associated with the influx of Germanic immigrants to the United States, specifically to Pennsylvania, which we know, from the experiences of Bro. Ben Franklin, to have been an area with strong Masonic connections from a much earlier period. Comp. Eckel is believed to have brought the Degree with him, from one of the Continental Rites in Europe that were so popular in the mid 1700’s, but as many of these failed and disappeared into the mists of history without a trace, this is impossible to confirm.

Parts of the Degree are said to resemble Degrees which were attached to what was known as the Rite of Misraim, while other parts seem to be nearer in form to the Rite of Memphis. In any event, little happened with the Degree (that has been recorded), until late in the 1790’s, when a Brother Jeremy L. Cross, of New York, managed to obtain not only the Degree but also authority from Comp. Eckel to transmit the Degree, for a fee, and to institute Councils wherever he wished.

Cross immediately commenced to do so, and the Degree began to spread across New England, and into the more southerly States shortly after. At about the same time, the Degree of Royal Master appeared in the Carolinas, initially under the auspices of members of the Southern Jurisdiction A & A S R in Charleston, where it was claimed to be a "Side Degree" of a Rite which now claims only 33 Degrees, but state that at one time they controlled more than 50! It was apparently their practice that any Brother who had received one of these "Side Degrees" also received full authority to confer the Degree on others, and to set up Councils to continue the Degree in the future.

Many of the oldest Councils in the United States were started under this type of authority, mainly by a Bro. James Barker, a renowned Lecturer on Masonry, who traveled across the South and West of the United States. Eventually, of course, the two Degrees met, and Bro. Cross arranged, in New York, for the Councils he had started to merge with the Councils giving the Royal Master Degree. The first Council of Royal and Select Masters was Columbia Council # 1, in New York. From the early 1820’s, the Rite seemed to catch on in the United States, and Councils were erected all over the place, with little formal authority other than from Cross and Barker, until Maryland assumed control for their own State, and refused to recognize any Councils erected independently of their control.

For a number of years, the whole set-up in the United States was rather loose and haphazard. Eventually, the Americans decided that a central governing body, similar to the recently formed General Grand Chapter, was a good idea for the Cryptic Rite also, and General Grand Council came into existence. All was not smooth sailing from this point, however. Several Grand Councils thought they would be better off as adjuncts of Grand Chapters, and worked very hard to place their Grand Councils under the authority of various Capitular bodies. Florida and West Virginia in particular persisted in this, in spite of the position of General Grand Chapter, which was that they should have nothing to do with the Cryptic Rite at all! West Virginia’s Grand Chapter still has control of the Royal, the Select, and the more recent Super-Excellent Master Degrees, set very firmly under the control of Councils formed within the Chapters of the Royal Arch, in much the same manner as we currently moor Lodges of Royal Ark Mariners to our Councils, in this Jurisdiction. (In Scotland, a similar arrangement appertains, but we are not examining European variants in this paper.)

Most of the rest of the Cryptic World does not recognize their existence, officially, and does not allow inter-visitation, mainly due to the fact that their continued control of these Degrees through Chapters directly violates official policy of General Grand Chapter, and of General Grand Council. While both of these bodies are somewhat limited in their ability to enforce their policy in this regard, the have limited the effect of this type of merger of Chapter and Council to West Virginia, alone. The spread of the Cryptic Rite throughout North America has closely followed the development of trade, both domestically in the United States, and internationally to Canada and Mexico. As trade routes expanded throughout the territories, so did Freemasonry! This is the primary reason that a clearly American Rite is so solidly established in a formerly British territory, Canada. A similar process can be seen in Craft and Royal Arch workings in the Provinces of Canada. Those Provinces whose early trade relationships were with the United States tend to use workings based at least in part on the Ancient York Rite of Masonry as practiced in the State of New York or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as for example: Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The Provinces whose major trade relationships were with Europe in the 1800’s continued to use forms of ritual based on English or Scottish workings, as in Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in the Craft Lodges, and in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in the Royal Arch. (New Brunswick formerly practiced a Royal Arch working similar to that in use in Nova Scotia, but changed their authorized working in the mid 1900’s.)

The formation of Councils and Grand Councils in the United States continued somewhat unevenly until the “Morgan Affair” in the mid-1800’s, at which time, much Masonic activity disappeared, with thousands of Lodges, Chapters and Councils handing in their charters as their memberships declined from resignations and withdrawals. In some jurisdictions in the United States, Masonry ceased to exist altogether at this time. By the late 1850’s, however, the Anti-Masonic fury, engendered at the time of the Morgan Affair (and which even spawned a major political Party in the USA during the time period), was dying out, and Masonry began to make a comeback. Its return to the public life of the Continent was marked by a tremendous period of growth, and this growth was also found in the Cryptic Rite. Literally thousand of Councils were formed in a short span of years, with some small States chartering hundreds of small Councils, many of them with less than twenty members to start themselves off.

Unfortunately, most of these small Councils eventually fell by the wayside, and the Grand Councils which saw this wild growth now found themselves with such odd situations as having the most recently chartered Councils receiving numbers in the One Hundred Plus range, while actually having only Twenty or so Councils operating. In other ways, the growth of the Rite on this Continent has taken a variety of unusual twists and turns. Many Grand Councils do not practice the Super-Excellent Master Degree, which is such an enjoyable part of our structure, here in Eastern Canada. Most Grand Councils in the United States do not have any direct familiarity with the Degree of Royal Ark Mariner, either, although in some jurisdictions it may be found attached to Councils of the Allied Masonic Degrees, which has only recently begun to make inroads here in Canada, even though it is a well-established group in England, and in the Eastern United States. In another aspect, there appears to be, in the United States, a much closer relationship between the bodies of what is called the "York Rite", to the extent that in many States, the Grand Chapter, Grand Council, and Grand Commandery (Preceptory) share many of their officers, as well as office space and equipment.

The Triennial assemblies of General Grand Chapter and General Grand Council are held together, with several shared functions. Many times, the Annual Proceedings of two or more of these Grand Bodies will be published together,, and they will frequently hold large "Field Days", where ALL of the Degrees, from Mark Master Mason through the Order of the Temple will be communicated to a large class on one occasion, often on the same day. While this may hold some benefit for membership purposes, the jury is still out as to whether there are any other long-term benefits. A side effect which may not be so beneficial is that they will frequently hold joint meetings of all three York Bodies on the same night, in the same place, and at the same time. It is perhaps noteworthy that these same jurisdictions are often the ones complaining in their Proceedings that they are having difficulties finding enough people to open the several Bodies in FULL form, or work the proper Degrees.

In any case, the same comments and complaints can be found in the Proceedings over the last hundred years, so, they can’t be too awfully concerned with the issue. Either that, or they are incredibly persistent in trying to make the practice work. The one thing that CAN be favourably seen from this structure is that there is indeed a high level of co-operation between the Bodies, and this on its own is worthwhile. As far as this relates to our own jurisdiction, the spread to Canada of the Cryptic Rite followed the same path that it did in the United States, and although our subsequent development has been somewhat different, most of the basics have remained unchanged, and a Cryptic Rite Mason from here would find enough in common with other jurisdictions in North America to achieve a measure of comfort in a visit. As always with Freemasonry, the differences we encounter serve mainly to point up the many similarities, and pull us closer to our roots.