- Hyman Isaac Long
Hyman Isaac Long was originally from the island of
Jamaica in the West Indies and is listed in the firstNew York City directory (1786 ) as an earlyJewish physician of that city. He was later involved in Masonic activities in New York,Virginia andSouth Carolina .At Kingston, Jamaica, on 11 January
1795 , Long was appointed a Deputy Inspector General of the Grand Consistory of the twenty-five degree "Rite of the Royal Secret," a governing body of high "Ecossais" degrees of Freemasonry, and a predecessor of the Scottish Rite. This appointment was made by Moses Cohen had received a similar appointment the previous year at Charleston, South Carolina, by Barend Spitzer. [Baynard, Samuel Harrison, Jr. History of the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the U.S.A. and its Antecedents, 2 vols. (1938) vol. I, pg. 77. Boston, Ma: Supreme Council, N.M.J.]Then, on 12 November
1796 , Long elevated seven French Masons in Charleston to the rank of Deputy Inspector General. These men were all French refugees from the slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Among these seven were Alexandre Françoise Comte de Grasse-Tilly and his father-in-law, Jean-Baptiste de la Hogue. Together, these eight organized a Consistory of the 25th Degree, or "Princes of the Royal Secret," which would later become the first Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. [Jackson, A.C.F. (1980). Rose Croix: A History of the Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales" (rev. ed. 1987) pp. 66-68. London: Lewis Masonic Publ.]Notes
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