STB-JU91
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
by Robert W Williams III
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 cooly 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 Lalayette and Bro. Daniel
Webster addressed the great gathering. The
monument was completed and dedicated
June 17, 1843, but without the presence of
thf 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 Scrvice (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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