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Red Cross, Knight Templar, Knight of Malta, Order of St. John of Jerusalem certificate for Richard S. Spofford
1856
Knights Templar (Masonic order). Grand Commandery (Mass. and R.I.); Hammatt Billings; Smith, George G.
USA: Massachusetts
Ink on paper, silk, dye
overall: 16-5/8" x 19-1/8"; 42 x 49 cm.
Transferred from Supreme Council, 33º, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
A87/028

A Knight Templar certificate issued by the Grand Commandery for Massachusetts to Richard S. Spofford and dated 1856. Imprint at bottom of certificate reads, "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1841, by Chas. W. Moore, John B. Hammatt, & John J. Loring (Committee) in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. Published under the sanction of the Grand Encampment of Mass. & R. Island." At the top of the certificate is a Christian cross. On the left and right sides of the certificate are columns with flags and human statues. On the left edge are attached three cloth ribbons colored black, red and blue joined together by a seal with the cross of Malta. Between the two columns and at the bottom is a depiction of a man lying on his back on a coffin-like structure.


Richard S. Spofford, Jr., joined St. John’s Masonic lodge in Newburyport when he was just twenty-one. Two years later, in 1856, he became a Knight Templar and received this certificate. Encampment officers’ signatures verified Spofford’s membership. The signature of the state level Grand Recorder, or secretary, attested to the legitimacy of the Newburyport group.