William Morgan (anti-Mason)

William Morgan (born 1774 – disappeared c. 1826) was a resident of Batavia, New York, whose disappearance and presumed murder in 1826 ignited a powerful movement against the Freemasons, a fraternal society that had become influential in the United States.^[1] After Morgan announced his intention to publish a book exposing Freemasonry's secrets, he was arrested on trumped-up charges.^[2] He disappeared soon after and was believed to have been kidnapped and killed by Masons from western New York.^[3]

William Morgan
1829 illustration of Morgan by The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
Born	1774 Culpeper, Colony of Virginia
Disappeared	c. 1826 (aged 51–52) Near Youngstown, New York
Occupation(s)	Stone cutter Bricklayer Storekeeper Author
Known for	Anti-Masonic writings
Spouse	Lucinda Pendleton ​ (m. 1819)​
Children	2

The allegations surrounding Morgan's disappearance and presumed death sparked a public outcry and inspired Thurlow Weed and others to harness the discontent by founding the new Anti-Masonic Party in opposition to President Andrew Jackson's Democrats.^[4] It ran a presidential candidate in 1832 but was nearly defunct by 1835.^[5]

Early life and education

Morgan was born in Culpeper, Virginia, in 1774.^[6] His birth date is sometimes given as August 7, but no definite source for this is cited.^[7] He worked as a bricklayer and stone cutter and later used his savings to open a store in Richmond.^[8][9]

Military service

Morgan told friends and acquaintances that he had served with distinction as a captain during the War of 1812, and his associates in upstate New York appear to have accepted this claim.^[10] Several men named William Morgan appear in the Virginia militia rolls for this period, but none held the rank of captain, and whether Morgan actually served in the war has not been determined with certainty.^[11]

Marriage and family

In October 1819, when he was in his mid-40s, Morgan married 19-year-old^[12] Lucinda Pendleton in Richmond, Virginia. They had two children: Lucinda Wesley Morgan and Thomas Jefferson Morgan.^[13] Two years after his marriage, Morgan moved his family to York, Upper Canada, where he operated a brewery. When his business was destroyed in a fire, Morgan was reduced to poverty.^[14]

He returned with his family to the United States, settling first at Rochester, New York, and later in Batavia, where he again worked as a bricklayer and stonecutter.^[15] Nineteenth-century local histories described Morgan as a heavy drinker and a gambler,^[16] characterizations disputed by Morgan's friends and supporters.^[17]

Book on Freemasonry

Morgan claimed to have been made a Master Mason while he was living in Canada,^[18] and he appears to have briefly attended a lodge in Rochester.^[19] In 1825, Morgan received the Royal Arch degree at Le Roy's Western Star Chapter Number 33, having declared under oath that he had previously received the six degrees that preceded it.^[20][21] It has never been established if he actually received these degrees and, if so, from which lodge.^[19][20] Morgan then attempted unsuccessfully to help establish or visit lodges and chapters in Batavia, but he was denied participation by members who disapproved of his character and even questioned his claims to Masonic membership.^[22] Morgan finally announced that he was going to publish an exposé titled Illustrations of Masonry,^[23] critical of the Freemasons and revealing their secret degree ceremonies in detail.^[24]

Morgan declared that a local newspaper publisher, David Cade Miller, had given him a sizable advance for the work.^[25] Miller is said to have received the entered apprentice degree (the first degree of Freemasonry), but had been stopped from advancement by the objection of Batavia lodge members.^[16] Morgan was promised one-fourth of the profits, and the financial backers of the venture—Miller, John Davids (Morgan's landlord), and Russel Dyer—entered into a $500,000 penal bond with Morgan to guarantee its publication.^[26]

Disappearance

Since Masons place their hands on a Bible and promise not to reveal the passwords and grips of the degrees, several members of the Batavia lodge published an advertisement denouncing Morgan for breaking his word by authoring the book.^[27] An attempt was also made to set fire to Miller's newspaper office and print shop.^[28] On September 11, 1826, Morgan was arrested for supposed nonpayment of a loan and allegedly stealing a shirt and a tie;^[29] according to the laws of the time he could be held in debtors' prison until restitution was made, which would have made it more difficult to publish his book.^[30] Morgan was jailed in Canandaigua, and when Miller learned of this, he went to the jail to pay the debt and secure Morgan's release. Morgan was released, but then re-arrested and charged with supposedly failing to pay a two dollar tavern bill.^[31] While the jailer was away, a group of men convinced his wife to release Morgan;^[32] they walked to a waiting carriage, which arrived two days later at Fort Niagara.^[16] Shortly afterwards, Morgan disappeared.^[32]

There are conflicting accounts of what happened next.^[32] The generally accepted version of events is that Morgan was taken in a boat to the middle of the Niagara River and thrown overboard, where he presumably drowned, since he was never seen again in the community.^[33] In 1848, Henry L. Valance allegedly confessed on his deathbed to taking part in Morgan's murder, a purported event recounted in chapter two of Reverend C. G. Finney's anti-Masonic book The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry (1869).^[34]

In October 1827, a badly decomposed body washed up on the shores of Lake Ontario. Many presumed it to be Morgan, and the body was buried as his. However, the wife of a missing Canadian named Timothy Monroe (or Munro) positively identified the clothing on the body as that which had been worn by her husband at the time he had disappeared.^[35][36] One group of Freemasons denied that Morgan was killed, alleging that they had paid him $500 to leave the country.^[37] Morgan was reportedly seen later, including in other countries, but none of the reports were confirmed.^[38] Eventually, Eli Bruce, the sheriff of Niagara County and a Mason, was removed from office and tried for his involvement in Morgan's disappearance; he served 28 months in prison after being convicted of conspiracy for his role in kidnapping Morgan and holding him against his will before his disappearance.^[39] Three other Masons, Loton Lawson, Nicholas Chesebro, and Edward Sawyer, were convicted of taking part in the kidnapping and served sentences.^[40] Other Batavia Masons were tried and acquitted.^[41] Author Jasper Ridley suggests that Morgan was probably killed by local Masons, as all other scenarios are highly improbable.^[40] Historian H. Paul Jeffers also considers this the more credible explanation.^[42] C. T. Congdon, in Reminiscences of a Journalist, cites a third-hand account "that Morgan was murdered by certain very zealous Freemasons," and notes that the resultant anti-Mason sentiment caused many elections to go to non-Masons for a number of years afterwards.^[43]

Aftermath: the anti-Masonic movement

Soon after Morgan disappeared, Miller published Morgan's book, which became a bestseller because of the notoriety of the events surrounding his disappearance.^[44] Miller did not say that Morgan had been murdered but that he had been "carried away".^[44] Accounts circulated of Morgan having assumed a new identity and settled in Albany, Canada, or the Cayman Islands, where he was said to have been hanged as a pirate.^[44] New York governor DeWitt Clinton, also a Mason, offered a $1,000 reward (over $27,000 in 2023) for information about Morgan's whereabouts, but it was never claimed.^[36]

The circumstances of Morgan's disappearance and the minimal punishment received by his kidnappers caused public outrage, and he became a symbol of the rights of free speech and free press.^[45] Protests against Freemasons took place in New York and the neighboring states; Masonic officials disavowed the actions of the kidnappers, but all Masons were under a cloud of suspicion.^[46] Thurlow Weed, a New York politician, gathered discontented opponents of President Andrew Jackson, a Mason, into the Anti-Masonic Party, which gained the support of such notable politicians as William H. Seward and Millard Fillmore.^[47]

In the 1828 campaign, other Jackson rivals, including John Quincy Adams, joined in denouncing the Masons.^[48] In 1832, the Anti-Masonic Party fielded William Wirt as its presidential candidate and Amos Ellmaker as his running mate, and they received Vermont's seven electoral votes.^[49] By 1835, the party had become moribund everywhere but Pennsylvania, as other issues, such as slavery, became the focus of national attention.^[50] In 1847, Adams published a widely distributed book titled Letters on the Masonic Institution that criticized the Masons' secret society.^[51]

Members of Freemasonry criticized the Mormons for their adoption of Masonic rituals and regalia.^[52] In 1830, Morgan's widow, Lucinda Pendleton Morgan, married George W. Harris of Batavia, a silversmith who was 20 years older.^[13] After they moved to the Midwest, they became Mormons.^[13] By 1837, some historians believe that Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris had become one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.^[53] She continued to live with George Harris.^[13] After Smith was murdered in 1844, she was "sealed" to him for eternity in a rite of the church.^[13] By 1850, the Harrises had separated.^[13] When George Harris died in 1860, he had been excommunicated from the Mormons after ceasing to practice with them.^[13] That year, Lucinda Morgan Harris was reported to have joined the Catholic Sisters of Charity in Memphis, Tennessee, where she worked at the Leah Asylum. She had been widowed three times.^[13] In 1841, the Mormons announced their vicarious baptism of William Morgan after his death, as one of the first under their new rite to posthumously offer people entrance into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.^[13]

In June, 1881, a grave was discovered in a quarry two miles south of the Indian reservation in Pembroke, New York.^[36] In it were bones and a metal tobacco box. Other items found included a ring with the inscribed initials "W. M." The box contained a crumpled paper; its few legible words seemed to suggest that the remains might have been Morgan's.^[36] There were also critics who suggested that the alleged discovery of the bones and other artifacts was intentionally timed to coincide with the effort to construct a memorial to Morgan and might have been an effort to generate publicity for the monument, which was in fact dedicated in 1882.^[54]

Monument to Morgan

 

William Morgan Pillar, April 2011

On September 13, 1882, the National Christian Association, a group opposed to secret societies, commissioned and erected a statue in memoriam to Morgan in the Batavia Cemetery, in Batavia, New York, where Timothy Monroe's body had been buried.^[55] The ceremony was witnessed by 1,000 people, including representatives from local Masonic lodges.^[56][57]

The monument reads:

Sacred to the memory of Wm. Morgan, a native of Virginia, a Capt. in the War of 1812, a respectable citizen of Batavia, and a martyr to the freedom of writing, printing and speaking the truth. He was abducted from near this spot in the year 1826, by Freemasons and murdered for revealing the secrets of their order. The court records of Genesee County and the files of the Batavia Advocate, kept in the Recorders office contain the history of the events that caused the erection of this monument.^[4]

Representation in other media

The pharmacist John Uri Lloyd based part of the background story of his popular scientific allegorical novel Etidorhpa (1895) on the kidnapping of William Morgan and the start of the Anti-Masonry movement.^[58]

In his novel The Craft: Freemasons, Secret Agents, and William Morgan (2010), the author Thomas Talbot presents a fictional version of the William Morgan kidnapping. He portrays him as a British spy, includes rogue British Masons, and has presidential agents thwart an assassination plot.^[59]

Works

• Morgan, William (1827). Illustrations of Masonry, By One of the Fraternity Who has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject. Rochester, NY: Wm. Morgan – via Google Books.
• Morgan, William; Crafts, George R. (1851). The Mysteries of Free Masonry. New York: Wilson and Company – via HathiTrust.

See also

• Anti-Masonry
• Faked death
• List of people who disappeared

References

1. Buel Jr., Richard (2006). The A to Z of the Early American Republic. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8108-6840-3.
2. Ashcraft, W. Michael; Gallagher, Eugene V. (2006). Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-275-98713-8.
3. Roth, Randolph A. (2002). The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform, and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-521-30183-1. william morgan kidnapped murdered masons.
4. Epstein, David A. (2012). Left, Right, Out: The History of Third Parties in America. New York: Arts and Letters Imperium Publishing. pp. 34–35, 43. ISBN 978-0-578-10654-0.
5. The History Channel, Mysteries of the Freemasons: America, video documentary, 1 August 2006, written by Noah Nicholas and Molly Bedell
6. Ross, Peter (1899). A Standard History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Volume 1. New York: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 309.
7. Morris, Robert (1883). William Morgan: Or Political Anti-Masonry; Its Rise, Growth and Decadence. New York: Robert Macoy, Masonic Printer. p. 63.
8. The Proceedings of the United States Antimasonic Convention, Held at Philadelphia, September 11, 1830. Embracing the Journal of Proceedings, the reports, the Debates, and the Address to the People, Published by I. P. Trimble, Philadelphia et al. 1830. 164 pp.
9. Fitts, James Franklin (March 1, 1870). Was Morgan Murdered? Packard's Monthly. New York: S. S. Packard. p. 98.
10. Greene, Samuel D. (1873). The Broken Seal: Or, Personal Reminiscenses of the Morgan Abduction and Murder. Chicago, IL: Ezra A. Cook & Co. p. 31.
11. Young, John K.; Karg, Barb (2006). The Everything Freemasons Book. Avon, MA: F+W Media, Inc. p. 119. ISBN 978-1-59869-059-0.
12. Compton, Todd (1997), In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, pp. 44, 52.
13. Thompson, John E. (February 1985), "The Mormon Baptism of William Morgan", Philalethes: The Review of Masonic Research and Letters, 38 (1): 8–11
14. McMaster, John Bach (1915). A History of the People of the United States, Volume V. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 109.
15. Niles, Hesekiah (March 27, 1830). "Case of William Morgan". Niles' Weekly Register. Baltimore, MD. p. 89.
16. Tillotson, Lee S.; Ancient Craft Masonry in Vermont, Vermont Freemasons, Online version
17. Bernard, David (1879). Light on Masonry. Utica, NY: William Williams, Printer. p. 49.
18. Ellis, Edward Sylvester (1920). Low Twelve: "By Their Deeds Ye Shall Know Them". New York: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. p. 234.
19. Bentley, A. P. (1874). History of the Abduction of William Morgan. Mt. Pleasant, IA: Van Cise & Throop. p. 9. william morgan masonic lodge rochester.
20. Tillotson, Lee S. (1920). Ancient Craft Masonry in Vermont. Montpelier, VT: Capital City Press. p. 79.
21. Morris, Robert (1884). William Morgan, Or, Political Anti-Masonry: Its Rise, Growth and Decadence. New York: Robert Macoy, Masonic Publisher. p. 61.
22. Ross, Peter (1899). A Standard History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Volume 1. New York: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 310.
23. Morgan, William (1827), Illustrations of Masonry by One of the Fraternity Who has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject: "God said, Let There be Light, and There was light", Batavia, NY: David C. Miller
24. Stokes, Jerry (2007). Changing World Religions, Cults & Occult. Menlo Park, CA. p. 285.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
25. "Masonic Stories: The Morgan Affair". Universal Co-Masonry. Larkspur, CO: The American Federation of Human Rights, Inc. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
26. Harry Claudy, Carl (1948). Masonic Harvest. Washington, DC: Temple Publishing. p. 37.
27. Southwick, Solomon (1829). Speech of Solomon Southwick at the Opening of the Anti-Masonic State Convention. Albany, NY: B. D. Packard & Co. p. 3.
28. Riley, Kathleen L. (2005). Lockport: Historic Jewel of the Erie Canal. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing. p. 97. ISBN 0-7385-2477-8.
29. Walker Howe, Daniel (1979). The Political Culture of the American Whigs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-226-35479-8.
30. Remini, Robert V. (1981). Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom, 1822–1832. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-8018-5912-0.
31. Grant, Terrence S. (2015). The Life and Times of George Washington Patterson. Leicester, NY: Terrence, Mary and Ashley Grant. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-1-329-63182-3.
32. The Life and Times of George Washington Patterson, pp. 29–30.
33. "Captain William M. Morgan of Batavia New York", Christian Martyrs
34. Finney, Charles Grandison; The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry.
35. Clyde R. Forsberg, Jr., Equal Rites: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture, New York: Columbia University Press, Preface xv.
36. “William Morgan's Bones; A Skeleton Found in a Quarry in Genesee County” The New York Times, June 22, 1881. Retrieved 2011-07-07.
37. Ellis, Edward Sylvester (1920). Low Twelve: "By Their Deeds Ye Shall Know Them". New York: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. p. 247.
38. Keene, Michael (2011). Folklore and Legends of Rochester: The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner and Other Tales. Charleston, SC: The History Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-60949-190-1.
39. Rule, Lucien V. (1912). Pioneering in Masonry: The Life and Times of Rob Morris, Masonic Poet. Louisville, KY: Brandt & Connors Company. p. 70.
40. Ridley, Jasper; The Freemasons: A History of the World's Most Powerful Secret Society, pp. 180–181 (Arcade Publishing 1999).
41. Borowitz, Albert (2002). Blood & Ink: An International Guide to Fact-based Crime Literature. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-87338-693-7.
42. Jeffers, Henry Paul, Freemasons: A History and Exploration of the World's Oldest Secret Society, p. 85, Citadel Press, 2005.
43. Congdon, C.T., Reminiscences of a Journalist, pp. 28–30, James R. Osgood & Co., 1880.
44. Stezano, Martin (December 19, 2018). "One Man Exposed the Secrets of the Freemasons. His Disappearance Led to Their Downfall". History.com. New York: A&E Networks.
45. Galpin, William Freeman (1941). Central New York, an Inland Empire. Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 162.
46. Beyer, Thomas R. Jr. (2010). 33 Keys to Unlocking the Lost Symbol. New York: Newmarket Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-55704-919-3.
47. Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Boston: The Biographical Society. p. Seward-Seward.
48. Stewart, Joshua Thompson (1913). History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present. Vol. I. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-5879569964 – via Google Books.
49. Nickerson, Sereno D. (1875). The New England Freemason. Vol. II. Boston: Frank Wood. p. 448 – via Google Books.
50. Bracy, Frank L. Jr. (2017). Choices: The View from the Center. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-4809-4464-0 – via Google Books.
51. John Quincy Adams, Letters on the Masonic Institution, Press of T.R. Marvin, 1847.
52. Cusack, Carole M.; Lewis, James R., eds. (2014). Handbook of Freemasonry. Vol. 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill. pp. 308–313. ISBN 978-9-0042-7312-2 – via Google Books.
53. Compton, Todd (1997), In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Signature Books
54. "The "Morgan" Mystery". The Freemason's Chronicle. London. June 25, 1881.
55. Vaughn, William Preston (2009). The Anti-Masonic Party in the United States: 1826–1843. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8131-5040-6 – via Google Books.
56. "An Old Tragedy Revived; Erection Of A Memorial To Morgan, Who Divulged The Secrets Of Masonry", The New York Times, 14 September 1882, p. 1.
57. "Morgan's Monument: The Unveiling Ceremonies Witnessed by a Large Crowd Who Listen to Able and Interesting Addresses Substance of the Speeches Proceedings at the Convention A Letter from Thurlow Weed", The Daily News, Batavia (NY), 14 September 1882. Retrieved 2011-07-07.
58. Smith, RJ (April 7, 2015). "John Uri Lloyd: To Infinity and Beyond". Cincinnati. Cincinnati, OH: Ivy Bayer.
59. Crofts, Daniel (October 31, 2010). "Batavia man writes novel based on William Morgan's disappearance". The Batavian. Batavia, NY.

External links

• A detailed account from a Canadian Grand Lodge
• Works by or about William Morgan at Internet Archive
• George Peter MPS. . web.mit.edu. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011. Retrieved Oct 24, 2018.
• Works by William Morgan at Project Gutenberg