Question about Brother Geogre Washington

[Kevin C Livingston]

Is it true that he only had his third degree (Master mason) and was never part of any appendant bodies? Could someone shed some factual light on the subject?
By the way Hello from Smyrna, DE!

 

[jason]

The Scottish Rite came into being with the formation of the Mother Supreme Council in May 1801.

I believe the York Rite was officially founded in the late 1700's.

Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Shriners, or now Shriners International) was founded in 1870.

George Washington died December 14th, 1799.

So he was not a Shriner for sure. If I do have the date correct, and I believe I do. He was not Scottish Rite. York could be a possibility.

Now all that being said. The degrees may have well been performed in regular Lodges before the founding of the bodies. There are records of many different degrees done by some Lodges in our early history. Could he have attended those degrees? It is a possibility.

Side note, as you did not mention which bodies, I picked the top 3 in America.

 

[Kevin C Livingston]

As a matter of fact, I did mean the "top three bodies". I was asking because I recently visited the Masonic Memorial Temple in Alexandria, VA and the guide mention that he only had the three degrees conferred to him. Thabks for the clarification!

 

[PatrickWilliams]

Is it true that he only had his third degree (Master mason) and was never part of any appendant bodies? Could someone shed some factual light on the subject?
By the way Hello from Smyrna, DE!

Hey, Delaware! How's it going? Anyhow, as far as your question is concerned, I don't think anyone knows, for sure. While it's true that the Scottish Rite Mother Lodge wasn't formed until 1801, the degrees (or some of them), in one form or another, had been kicking around France and England for some time before that. Additionally, there were lots of degrees that were written by one author or another that were presented for bucks throughout the early history of our fraternity. There's even an appendant order of Masonry whose entire reason for being is finding and preserving these old degrees (although their name slips my mind right now).

So, it's just impossible to say what degrees Bro. George took and/or did not take (of course, those degrees written after his death are in the 'did not take' group). Freemasonry was a bit woolier and looser around the edges in those days.