JOSEPH WARREN
This STB on Joseph Warren was written by Robert W. Williams III, A
Massachusetts freemason who served as Editor of the "Trowel" (publication of the
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) for many years. This article was also reprinted by
6he Southern California Research Lodge.
JOSEPH WARREN Martyr of Bunker Hill
On a quiet summer afternoon about 230 years ago, some Harvard College
students shut themselves in an upper dormitory room to arrange some affairs
pertaining to their class. Another class member desired to be with them--knowing
they intended to thwart some fondly cherished purpose of his own. They refused
to admit him; the door was closed, and he could not gain admittance without
violence, which he chose to avoid.
Reconnoitering the premises he discovered that one of the windows in the room
was open and he noticed a nearby waterspout that extended from the roof to the
ground. He climbed to the top of the house and slid down the eaves, then laid
hold of the spout and descended until he was opposite the open window. With a
prodigious physical effort he thrust himself through the window and landed in
the room! Simultaneously, the waterspout crashed to the ground; had it fallen a
moment sooner he would have been thrown to the pavement below and, undoubtedly
seriously injured. He coolly remarked to himself, "It served its purpose!"
That Harvard boy was Joseph Warren, later known as Doctor Warren and General
Warren, the martyr of Bunker Hill and the Grand Master of Masons (Massachusetts
Provincial Grand Lodge) in North America. The boy had already given promise of
the man in whatever he undertook. The fearless act of getting to that room was
the swelling bud which opened and blossomed and bore fruit in his adult life.
In December 1769 Warren received a commission from the Earl of Dalhousie,
Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, appointing him Provincial Grand Master of
Masons in Boston and within 100 miles of the same. The commission was dated May
30, 1769. When the Earl of Dumfries succeeded Dalhousie as Grand Master he
issued another appointment to Warren, dated March 7, 1772, constituting him
"Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America," extending his original
limits. He was indefatigable in the discharge of his Masonic duties and, coupled
with his extensive medical practice, the care of his motherless children,
together with his patriotic devotion to his country, won for him the highest
regard of the public and the Craft. His name is indelibly engraved on the mystic
temple of Freemasonry, just as it is on the pages of American History.
Somewhat impetuous in nature, but brave to a fault, Bro. Warren craved the
task of doing what others dared not do--the same courage imbued in Paul Revere
and other patriots. On the anniversary of the Boston Massacre (March 3, 1770)
Warren was the orator. While it was a duty which won him distinction, it was
also one of peril. English military officers attended in order to heckle Warren
and it required a brave man to stand up in Old South Church, in the face of
those officers, to boldly proclaim their bloody deeds. It required a cool head
and steady nerves, and Grand Master Warren had both.
The crowd at the church was immense; the aisles, the pulpit stairs, and the
pulpit itself were filled with officers and soldiers of the garrison, gathered
there to intimidate the speaker. Warren was equal to the task but entered the
church through a pulpit window in the rear, knowing he might have been barred
from entering through the front door. In the midst of his most impassioned
speech, an English officer seated on the pulpit stairs and in full view of
Warren, held several pistol bullets in his open hand. The act was significant;
while the moment was one of peril and required the exercise of both courage and
prudence, to falter and allow a single nerve or muscle to tremble would have
meant failure--even ruin to Warren and others.
Everybody knew the intent of the officer and a man of less courage than
Warren might have flinched, but the future hero, his eyes having caught the act
of the officer and without the least discomposure or pause in his discourse,
simply approached the officer and dropped a white handkerchief into the
officer's hand! The act was so adroitly and courteously performed that the
Breton was compelled to acknowledge it by permitting the orator to continue in
peace.
On June 14, 1775, three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually
Breed's Hill), Dr. Warren was elected Major General by the Provincial Congress
of Massachusetts. Without military education or experience, he was placed in the
presence of the whole British army. Against the protests of Gen. Artemus Ward,
Gen. Israel Putnam and others, Warren chose to shoulder a musket and join the
fighting men behind the barricades on the hill. He felt a premonition of his
death and declared to Betsey Palmer (whose husband joined the Tea Party and the
Battle of Lexington), "Come, my little girl, drink a glass of wine with me for
the last time, for I shall go to the hill tomorrow and I shall never come off."
The shooting lasted less than one hour but only because the Patriots ran out
of ammunition. Warren had been shot in the back of the head and thrown to the
ground. His body was thrown in a ditch by a British officer and buried with the
others. It was discovered months later and identified by Paul Revere who
recognized a false tooth he had made for Warren. He was next buried in the
Granary burial ground (Tremont St., Boston) where he was laid after Masonic
ceremonies in King's Chapel and, thirdly, in the Warren Tomb in St. Paul's
Cathedral, Boston. Finally, on August 3, 1855, "The precious ashes were
carefully deposited in an imperishable urn and placed in the family vault at
Forest Hill Cemetery where they now repose.'' (G.L. Proc. 1855-69 p. 511.) On
April 8, 1777 Congress ordered a monument to be erected over the grave of Gen.
Warren in the Town of Boston, but like many other things Congress resolves, it
was never accomplished. In 1794 King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown (now meeting
in Somerville) erected a monument on Bunker Hill on land donated by Bro.
Benjamin Russell for that purpose. It was "A Tuscan pillar, 18 feet in height
placed on a platform 8 feet high, 8 feet square, and fences around."
The Bunker Hill Monument Association was formed in 1823 for the "purpose of
erecting on Bunker Hill a more fitting and enduring monument to the memory of
the brave men who fell there in the cause of human liberty." King Solomon's
Lodge (1783) then gave the Association the ground which it owned, together with
the monument it had erected to the memory of Bro. Warren, on condition "that
some trace of its former existence" might be preserved in the monument to be
erected. On June 17, 1825, Grand Lodge opened at 8 a.m. and a procession was
formed on the Common which marched to Bunker Hill in Charlestown. There, in the
presence of Bro. Lafayette (the apron he wore is in the Grand Lodge archives),
representatives from five New England States along with the Grand Lodge of New
Jersey, Grand Master John Abbot, and Senior Past Grand Master Isaiah Thomas,
assisted in laying the cornerstone and Lafayette and Bro. Daniel Webster
addressed the great gathering. The monument was completed and dedicated June 17,
1843, but without the presence of the Grand Lodge. It was during the antiMasonic
era and a resolution to attend was defeated .
Inside the present obelisk is a model of the first monument that had been
erected by King Solomon's Lodge. It is made of the finest Italian marble and,
including the granite pedestal on which it stands, is about nine feet in height
and bears substantially the same inscription as the former one. The memorial is
now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (1976) and anybody can
climb the 294 steps to the top without charge. From windows you can view Boston
and, in particular, Charlestown Navy Yard where the U.S.S. Constitution (Old
Ironsides) is berthed.
(Contributing source: Cornelius Moore in the Voice of Masonry, published
in The Freemasons Repository, Nov. 1881, Vol. 11.)
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