Master Mason certificate issued to Samuel Derby, 1796

Item — Folder: 1

Identifier: A1984-021-001

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Scope and Contents

Master Mason certificate issued by Essex Lodge (Salem, Massachusetts) to Samuel Derby and dated 1796. The Dutch inscription on the back of certificate is notation/affidavit of Samuel Derby’s visit to the La Vertueuse lodge in Batavia, Dutch East Indies or nowadays Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 15, 1801. The imprint on bottom of certificate reads "J. Hiller jun'r, del. S. Hill sc."

Dates

Creation: 1796

Creator

Freemasons. Essex Lodge (Salem, Mass.) (Organization)
Derby, Samuel Gardner, 1767-1843 (Recipient, Person)
Freemasons. La Verteuse Lodge (Batavia, Dutch East Indies) (Organization)
Hill, Samuel, approximately 1766-1804 (Engraver, Person)
Hiller, Joseph, Jr., 1777-1795 (Designer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Materials in this collection may be governed by copyright. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Please contact the Archivist regarding permission to publish material.

Biographical / Historical

Captain Samuel G. Derby, a Massachusetts merchant, co-owned a ship named Margaret, which he captained. He set off in 1800 headed to Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) to take part in the pepper trade. He was commissioned by the East India Company while he was in Batavia (nowadays Jakarta), to take their annual freights of cargo to and from Japan, leaving from Batavia on June 20, 1801. Derby’s clerk kept a journal of the voyage.

Extent

1 item/s ; 14" x 16"; 32 x 42 cm.

Language of Materials

English

Dutch; Flemish

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Museum purchase

Exhibition Label

Signed and Sealed: Masonic Certificates Exhibition corridor show 2017

Master Mason Certificate, 1796 Issued to Samuel G. Derby (1767-1843), Essex Lodge, Salem, Massachusetts Designed by Joseph Hiller, Jr. (1777-1795), Salem, Massachusetts Engraved by Samuel Hill (ca. 1766-1804), Boston, Massachusetts Museum Purchase

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.