M.W. Bro. William Mercer Wilson 1813-1875

On August 18, 2013, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario unveiled a provincial plaque at St. John’s Anglican Church in Simcoe, Ontario, to commemorate M.W. Bro. William Mercer Wilson 1813-1875.

The bilingual plaque reads as follows:

M.W. BRO. WILLIAM MERCER WILSON 1813-1875

William Mercer Wilson was born in Scotland and immigrated to Upper Canada at the age of 19. He moved to Simcoe where he worked as a court clerk, lawyer, Crown attorney and finally judge for Norfolk County. During the Rebellions of 1837-38, he served in the Norfolk Cavalry and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He introduced the first printing press in the district and for two years published the Norfolk Observer. In 1840, Wilson became a Freemason in Simcoe. His leadership and vision were instrumental in the creation of the Grand Lodge of Canada, independent of the authority of the Grand Lodge of England. The legacy of Ontario Freemasons can be traced to his unifying efforts. Most Worshipful Brother Wilson was elected the Grand Lodge’s first Grand Master in 1855, a position that he held twice more before his death. His grave is located at the far eastern end of the cemetery.

TRÈS VÉNÉRABLE FRÈRE WILLIAM MERCER WILSON 1813-1875

William Mercer Wilson est né en Écosse et immigre dans le Haut-Canada à l’âge de 19 ans. Il déménage à Simcoe où il travaille comme greffier du tribunal, avocat, procureur de la Couronne et finalement juge du Comté Norfolk. Durant les rébellions de 1837-1838, il sert dans la cavalerie de Norfolk et atteint le rang de lieutenant-colonel. Il introduit la première presse à imprimer dans le district et il publie pendant deux ans le Norfolk Observer. En 1840, Wilson devient franc-maçon à Simcoe. Son leadership et sa vision contribuent à la création de la Grande Loge du Canada qui est indépendante de la Grande Loge d’Angleterre. Grâce à ses efforts d’unification, les francs-maçons de l’Ontario prospèrent. Le Très Vénérable Frère Wilson est élu premier Grand Maître de la Grande Loge en 1855, un poste qu’il occupe à deux autres reprises avant sa mort. Sa tombe est située à l’extrémité est du cimetière.

Historical background

The current benevolent legacy of Ontario Freemasons can be traced to the unifying efforts of William Mercer Wilson, first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada.

William Mercer was born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1813. He was adopted by his uncle and took on the surname Wilson.¹ At the age of 19, he emigrated to Upper Canada and, by 1834,² he was appointed to the Court of Requests in the Talbot District. This was the beginning of a career dedicated to the law. During the following decades, he worked as a legal clerk, lawyer (Wilson was called to the bar in 1853), a Crown attorney and, in 1868, he was appointed judge of the Norfolk County court.

In addition to the law, Wilson was passionate about his native Scotland, as well as literacy and education. He helped form, and became president of, the local St. Andrew’s Society,³ established the first printing press in the Talbot District, published the Norfolk Observer newspaper, and was president of the Mechanics’ Institute.⁴ In the Rebellions of 1837-38, he was an officer in the Norfolk Cavalry and, by his 35th birthday, a lieutenant-colonel of the local militia.⁵ On June 11, 1840, William Mercer Wilson became a Freemason in Simcoe, the county seat for Norfolk County.⁶ Both ambitious and hardworking, Wilson was elected the Master of the lodge just five years later.⁷ He quickly understood the key issues that were facing Freemasonry. Since the first half of the century, Freemasons in Upper Canada had complained of a growing rift between them and the Grand Lodge of England. In particular, many believed that the distance across the Atlantic made communications too cumbersome and slow, that the Grand Lodge played too great a role in the selection of Canadian officers, and that it collected too great a share of provincial funds that could be better distributed locally.⁸

Freemasonry was, and remains, a fraternal organization with a strong sense of tradition. The roots of the organization can be traced to the Middle Ages and the guilds of stone workers or “operative” masons that emerged around the great building projects of the era.⁹ In the centuries that followed, the guilds slowly expanded their membership to include men who were not stone masons by trade. By the 17th century, records detailing lodges of “speculative” masons in both England and Scotland began to emerge in great numbers.¹⁰ In the first decades of the 18th century, the smaller lodges centralized administratively under overarching Grand Lodges in England, Ireland and Scotland.¹¹ At the same time, Masonic lodges began to flourish in France and elsewhere in continental Europe.

Eighteenth century Freemasonry in Britain reflected many of the characteristics of the intellectual and cultural movement known as the Enlightenment.¹² Early Freemasons valued the importance of brotherhood and sociability as well as self-improvement and the promotion of the civic good. In an era marked by privilege and growing class divisions, Masonic gatherings operated on the principles of unity, order and democratic representation.¹³ During this time, governments provided little social assistance to the public. Early Freemasonry acted as a benevolent society, first assisting with the well-being of its members and their families and then turning charitable efforts to the less fortunate in the community.

William Mercer Wilson believed that a clean break from the Grand Lodge of England was the practical solution, and he was not alone. In October 1855, representatives from 41 lodges (28 from Canada West, 13 from Canada East) met in Hamilton where they ratified a proposal to form a Grand Lodge separate from the authority of England.¹⁴ One month later, Wilson was installed as the first Grand Master of the new Grand Lodge.¹⁵ The decision to separate from the Grand Lodge of England, however, was not universally popular. Freemasons on both sides of the Atlantic debated the impact that the new Grand Lodge would have both in Canada and across the world. One letter to the monthly Freemason’s Magazine and Masonic Mirror published in Great Britain lamented in 1856:

"The recent defection of Canada from the jurisdiction of the G.L. of England, is a matter upon which the Craft has a right to the fullest possible explanation. One of the two things is certain; either there has been a most unMasonic precipitation on the part of the Canadians, or else the most culpable neglect and dereliction of duty on the part of the authorities of the G.L. It is absolutely necessary that we should clearly understand which of these two painful alternatives is the correct one."¹⁶

Some Masons who were part of the longstanding Provincial Grand Lodge of Canada West refused to accept the newly minted Grand Lodge of Canada and its new leader. Instead, they petitioned England to form their own, separate Grand Lodge and elected Sir Allan MacNab (in opposition to Wilson) as their Grand Master.

While Freemasons debated the future ramifications of the new Grand Lodge, Wilson set to work touring Great Britain, British North America and the United States spreading a message that underscored the importance of local governance under the greater umbrella of Freemasonry. He worked to build bridges and gain consensus with those in opposition. As a result, in 1858, at a meeting in Toronto, the two Grand Lodges of Canada united with Wilson unanimously elected as the Grand Master. The next year, the Grand Lodge of Lower Canada joined under the umbrella of the Grand Lodge of Canada.¹⁷ Wilson’s skills as an orator and his speeches became legendary across North America. In 1860, for example, he passionately expressed what he believed were the core values of Freemasonry:

"Masonry, from its origin to the present time, in all its vicissitudes, has been the steady, unvarying friend of man ... It comforts the mourner, it speaks peace and consolation to the troubled spirit, it carries relief and gladness to the habitations of want and destitution; it dries the tears of the widow and orphan; it opens the source of knowledge; it widens the sphere of human happiness; it even seeks to light up the darkness and gloom of the grave, by pointing to the hopes and promises of a better life to come. All this Masonry has done, and is still doing."¹⁸

These sentiments continue to resonate today with Freemasons across Canada, as well as in some parts of the United States, who still memorize and recite these words spoken 150 years ago.

By the organization’s own count, there are over 47,000 Freemasons who live, work and volunteer in communities across Ontario.¹⁹ Freemasonry can be considered one of the oldest continuing organizations in Canada whose members – including prime ministers, premiers, athletes, soldiers, mechanics and farmers – have left an indelible impression on the province. After a somewhat tumultuous and unsure beginning, through his efforts and vision, William Mercer Wilson restored unity for Ontario Freemasons and laid the foundation for the benevolent organization that exists today.

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The Ontario Heritage Trust gratefully acknowledges the research of Michael Eamon in preparing this paper.

© Ontario Heritage Trust, 2013

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¹ Anne E.F. Sniderman, “William Mercer Wilson” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Volume X, accessed 30 April 2013.

² During that same year of 1834, Wilson married Jane Brown and they had 10 children together. Brown died about 1849.

³ St Andrew’s Societies were originally established to assist immigrants from Scotland.

⁴ Mechanics’ Institutes were set up to provide technical and adult education in Britain. The concept proved popular and others were established throughout the world.

⁵ Bruce M. Pearce, First Grand Master: A Biography of William Mercer Wilson, (Hamilton: Grand Lodge of Canada, 1973), 59.

⁶ Ibid., 44.

⁷ Library of the Grand Lodge of Canada, Masonic MSS P.G. Lodges 1822-1858, Upper Canada and Canada West, Volume II, “Provincial Grand Lodge for Canada West, Sir Allan Napier McNab, R.W. Provincial Grand Master … at a Meeting Holden at Hamilton, on Saturday the 9th day of August, 1845,” p. 37.

⁸ Wallace McLeod, et.al., eds. Whence Come We? Freemasonry in Ontario 1764-1980, (Hamilton: Grand Lodge of Ontario, 1980), 68-69.

⁹ A.T. Freed, “The Mother Grand Lodge,” in Osborne Sheppard, ed. A Concise History of Freemasonry in Canada, (Hamilton: R. Duncan, 1924), 5-7; David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century, 1590-1710, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 13-25.

¹⁰ Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry, 212-233.

¹¹ J. Ross Robertson, The History of Freemasonry in Canada: From Its Beginnings in 1749, Volume I, (Toronto: The Hunter, Rose Co., 1899), 62-111; Robert Freke Gould, The Concise History of Freemasonry, 3rd Edition, (London: Gale & Polden Ltd., 1951), 170-251.

¹² Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 35-36.

¹³ James Van Horn Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 252-272. Historian Margaret Jacob argues that Freemasonry was a radical social force on the European continent. See Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans, (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981).

¹⁴ J. Ross Robertson, The History of Freemasonry in Canada: From Its Introduction in 1749, Volume II, (Toronto: The Hunter, Rose Co., 1899), 721 and Sheppard, ed., Concise History of Freemasonry in Canada, 69.

¹⁵ During that same year of 1855, Wilson’s second wife, Susan Grace Codner, died. They had had three children together. Wilson then married Mary Elizabeth Dixon with whom he had one daughter.

¹⁶ “To the Editor of the Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror,” Freemasons Magazine and Masonic Mirror January (1856): 99.

¹⁷ This union would be short-lived. After Confederation in 1867, members in the newly formed province of Quebec thought that there should be separate provincial Grand Lodges. In 1869, 28 lodges decided to leave the Grand Lodge of Canada for a Grand Lodge of Quebec. By 1874, the Grand Lodge of Canada officially accepted the authority of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, which gained another 20 lodges under its control. Sheppard, ed., Concise History of Freemasonry in Canada, 69-70.

¹⁸ Walter S. Herrington, History of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, A.F. & A.M. in the Province of Ontario. (Hamilton: Robert Duncan, 1933). 93.

¹⁹ “Who Are Masons,” Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario website, accessed on 30 April 2013.

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Bibliography

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Library of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario (Hamilton, ON)

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