General Joseph Warren

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[From the Web master: this page is just a little diversion from our history. Boston area locals may well know the Warren Tavern which still operates in Charlestown. The tavern is named after our first "Grand Master of Masons in Boston, New England, and within one hundred miles of the same." here is a story about General Joseph Warren and his tavern.]

Warren Tavern History
This article was written by Robert W. Williams III

On a quiet summer afternoon about 230 years ago, some Harvard College students shut themselves in an upper dormitory room to arrange some affairs pertaining to their class. Another classmate desired to be with them-knowing they intended to thwart some fondly cherished purpose of his own. They refused to admit him; the door was closed, and he could not gain admittance without violence, which he chose to avoid.

Reconnoitering the premises he discovered that one of the windows in the room was open and he noticed a nearby waterspout that extended from the roof to the ground. He climbed to the top of the house and slid down the eaves, then laid hold of the spout and descended until he was opposite the open windows. With a prodigious physical effort he thrust himself through the window and landed in the room! Simultaneously, the waterspout crashed to the ground; had it fallen any sooner the boy would have been thrown to the pavement below and, undoubtedly, seriously injured. He coolly remarked to himself, "It had served it purpose!"

That Harvard boy was Joseph Warren, later to be known as Doctor Warren and General Warren, the martyr of Bunker Hill and the Grand Master of Masons (Massachusetts Provincial Grand Lodge) in North America. The boy had already given promise of the man in whatever he undertook. The fearless act of getting into that room was a swelling bud which opened and blossomed and bore fruit in his adult life.

In December 1769 Warren, received commission for the Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, appointing him Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Boston and within 100 miles of the same. The commission was dated May 30,1769. When the Earl of Dumfries succeeded Dalhousie as Grand Master of Scotland he issued another appointment to Warren, dated March 7,1772, constituting Warren "Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America," thus extending his original limits. He was indefatigable in the discharge of his Masonic duties and, coupled with labors of his extensive medical practice, care of his motherless children, together with his patriotic devotion to his country, won him the highest regard of the public and the Craft. His name is indelibly engraved on the mystics' temple of Freemasonry, just as it is on the pages of American history.

Somewhat impetuous in his nature, but brave to a fault, Bro. Warren craved the task of doing what others dared not do-the same courage imbued in Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and other patriots. On the anniversary of the Boston Massacre (March 3, 1770) Warren was the orator. While it was a duty which won him distinction, it was also one of peril. English military officers usually attended in order to heckle Warren and it required a brave man to stand up in Old South Church, in the face of those officers, to boldly proclaim their bloody deeds. It required cool head and steady nerves, and Grand Master Joseph Warren had both.

The crowd at the church was immense; the aisles, the pulpit stairs, and the pulpit itself were filled with officers and soldiers of the garrison, always there to intimidate the speaker. Warren was equal to the task but entered the church through a pulpit window in the rear, knowing he might have been barred from entering through the front door. In the midst of his impassioned speech, and English officer seated on the pulpit stairs and in full view of Warren, held several pistol bullets in his open hand. The act was significant; while the moment was one of peril and required the exercise of both courage and prudence, to falter and allow a single nerve or muscle to tremble would have meant failure-even ruin to Warren and others.

Everybody knew the intent of the officer and a man of less courage than Warren might have flinched, but the future hero, his eyes having caught the act of the officer and without the least discomposure or pause in his discourse, he simply approached the officer and dropped a white handkerchief into the officer's hand! The act was so adroitly and courteously performed that Breton [British Officer] was compelled to acknowledge it by permitting the orator to continue in peace.

On June 14, 1775, three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually Breeder's Hill) Dr. Warren was elected Major General by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Without military education or experience, he was placed in the presence of the whole British army. Against the protest of Gen. Artemus Ward, Gen. Israel Putman and others, Warren chose to shoulder a musket and join the fighting men behind the barricades on the hill. He had felt a premonition of his death and declared to Betsy Palmer (whose husband joined the Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington) "Come, my little girl, drink a glass of wine with me for the last time, for I shall go to the hill tomorrow and I shall never come off."

The shooting lasted less than one hour but only because the Patriots ran out of ammunition. Warren had been shot in the back of the head and throw to the ground. His body was thrown in a ditch by a British Officer and buried with others. It was discovered months later and identified by Paul Revere who recognized a false tooth he had made for Warren. He was next buried in the Granary burial ground (Tremont St., Boston) where he was laid after Masonic ceremonies in King's Chapel and thirdly, he was buried in the Warren Tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, Boston. Finally on August 3, 1855, "The precious ashes were carefully deposited in imperishable urn and placed in the family vault at Forest Hill Cemetery where they now repose" (G.L. Proc. 1855-69 p 511.) On April 8, 1777 Congress ordered a monument to be erected over the grave of Gen. Warren in the Town of Boston, but like many other things that Congress resolves, it was never accomplished. In 1794 King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown erected a monument on Bunker Hill on land donated by Bro. Benjamin Russell for that purpose. It was "A Tuscan pillar, 18 feet in height placed on a platform 8 feet high, 8 feet square, and fences around to protect it from injury"

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