Freemasons in Wilmington: Joseph Warren - Harvard Graduate, Doctor, Revolutionist & Freemason

For this week’s edition of Freemasons in Wilmington, I would like to present a brief history lesson on Patriot’s Day.  Do you know what happens on Patriot’s Day, other than the annual running of the Boston Marathon?  Patriot’s Day marks the anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, the event that inspired the phrase “the shot heard ‘round the world”, the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  On that day, leading volunteers against the British, was Joseph Warren, a Harvard graduate, a doctor, a revolutionist and a Freemason.

 Joseph Warren was not the only Freemason involved in the American Revolution, there were others such as Washington, Revere and Franklin to name a few, but what makes him stand out, at the time Joseph Warren was the Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America.

Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, MA on June 11, 1741, the eldest of four sons of Joseph Warren, a farmer, who died after falling out of an apple tree. Joseph, Jr. attended Harvard, taught briefly at the Latin School in Boston and then studied to become a doctor. He married Elizabeth Hooten on September 6, 1764 with whom he had four children, all of whom became orphaned after his death (their mother had died in April, 1773), whose care remained undetermined until 1778, when General Benedict Arnold (also a Freemason and a friend of Joseph Warren) gave $500 for their education and petitioned Congress for the amount of a major general’s half pay for their welfare until the youngest child reached adulthood.  Let’s leave the rest about Benedict Arnold for a discussion for another day.

Joseph Warren was not always a revolutionist, but it was when the British Parliament in 1767 passed the Townsend Acts, which among other things set the precedent to allow Parliament to tax the colonists and  which was probably the catalyst for American Revolution in first place. In response, Warren wrote a series of articles under a pseudonym in the Boston Gazette against the Townsend Acts.  The articles where so scathing, that the royal governor tried to bring charges against Warren, but a grand jury of his peers refused to charge Warren, lucky for him he had friends in high places!  This marked the beginning of Joseph Warren’s career in the American Revolution.  His friendship with Samuel Adams, his brother-in-law James Otis and his Masonic connection with Paul Revere put Joseph Warren smack in the middle of the revolutionary movement in Boston. 

In 1774 while Samuel Adams was away in Philadelphia, Joseph Warren was appointed President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, ultimately in charge of gathering troops and supplies in Massachusetts for battles yet to come against the British.  In fact, it was Joseph Warren himself who ordered Paul Revere and William Dawes on that fateful night in 1775 to warn the colonist that “the British were coming” thus leading to the Battle of Lexington and Concord.  Because of his actions,  Joseph Warren was promoted to Major General, second in command of all the forces in Massachusetts by the Provincial Congress on June 14, 1775.  But it wasn’t until 3 days later that Joseph Warren’s mark on history would be made forever at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. 

With little military experience and facing an imposing British army, Joseph Warren relinquished command of the colonist forces to General Artemus Ward and General Israel Putnam, and against their wishes took up arms with the troops against the British forces.  Joseph Warren fought  shoulder to shoulder with other volunteers taking position in a defensive portion of the hill.  The colonists were able to hold off two waves of British forces, but it was on the third wave that the British were able to overtake the position being held by Warren and others.  A British officer seeing Warren and knowing who he was took the opportunity to take aim and shot Warren in the back of the head, killing him instantly.  When the battle was over and the British began to bury the bodies of the dead, they found Joseph Warren’s body and mutilated it beyond all recognition and buried him in the spot where he lay.  Word of Joseph Warren’s death and actions that day spread like wildfire throughout the colonies and inspired many others to take up arms against the British.  Ten months after the battle, Joseph Warren’s body was exhumed for a proper burial and was only recognizable by a false tooth that Paul Revere had made for him.

Today, the Bunker Hill monument stands in commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill and inside the base of the monument is a stone pillar honoring the memory of Joseph Warren.  Today, Massachusetts’ Freemasons honor Joseph Warren’s memory with the Joseph Warren medal, which is given to men in Massachusetts Freemasonry for distinguished service to the community and to Freemasonry.  It is not a medal that is applied for but only earned and can only be given by the recommendation of a Master of a Lodge or by the Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts.  It is an award that is highly cherished and admired in Massachusetts Freemasonry.

So the next time you are watching the Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day, take a moment to reflect and say thanks to those courageous men, women and children who gave their lives so that we may have the freedoms we enjoy today as Americans.  Happy Patriot’s Day!