Karen Kidd in Boston October 29th

"A good Mason ought to be a good man. He ought to be three times more circumspect in his life and conversation than those who have never taken the same oath. He ought to be thrice three times more vigilant than those who never bent the knee within due Square; having bound himself by the most solemn vow. He having obtained more light, ought to impart knowledge to those who are yet blind and ignorant; and by a virtuous life do honor to the profession."

from "A Series of Letters On Freemasonry"

by A Lady of Boston (Hannah Mather Crocker), 1815

It has long been said that Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829), granddaughter of Puritan minister Cotton Mather of Boston, was the "Mistress" of a female Masonic lodge—St. Anne's Lodge—in Massachusetts in the 1770s. Female Masonic author Karen Kidd devotes a chapter to Hannah in her book Haunted Chambers: the Lives of Early Women Freemasons.

Karen will present a paper at the New England Historical Association's Fall 2011 conference in October. The Conference will be held at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday, October 29, 2011.

Her paper is “Who Made a Freemason of Hannah Mather Crocker? Means, Motive and Opportunity of Revolutionary Bostonian Masons.”

Karen Kidd is a member of a lodge of the Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry, American Federation of Human Rights.

Her most recent book is On Holy Ground: A History of The Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry.