Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Master Mason certificate issued to Samuel Derby
1796, about
Freemasons. Essex Lodge (Salem, Mass.)
USA: Massachusetts, Boston
Parchment
14" x 16"; 32 x 42 cm.; 1 Item (2 pages)
Museum Purchase
A84/021/001

Master Mason certificate issued by Essex Lodge (Salem, Massachusetts) to Samuel Derby and dated 1796. The inscription on the back of certificate is in Dutch and the imprint on bottom of certificate reads "J. Hiller jun'r, del. S. Hill sc."

Signed and Sealed: Masonic Certificates, corridor, part one, 2017 Master Mason Certificate, 1796 Issued to Samuel G. Derby (1767-1843), Essex Lodge, Salem, Massachusetts Designed by Joseph Hillier, Jr. (1777-1795), Salem, Massachusetts Engraved by Samuel Hill (ca. 1766-1804), Boston, Massachusetts Museum Purchase, A84/021/001 This certificate proclaimed “To all Brethren through the world” that Samuel Derby had received the Master Mason degree at Essex Lodge in Salem, Massachusetts. A note inked on the certificate’s back shows that Derby, a mariner, used his certificate to visit a Dutch lodge in Suriname. This certificate’s design reflected Essex Lodge’s many seafaring members’ interest in the world; the four allegorical figures at the bottom represent the continents of Africa, America, Asia and Europe.