Master:
1849
Other: Master of Rose Lodge, auctioneer
Died:
1879 at age 89, Sandwich, ON Buried
at St. John’s Anglican Church, Sandwich
Ross Robertson, The History of Freemasonry in Canada, Vol. II, George D. Morang & Co., Ltd., Toronto, 1900, p. 287.
Alan Douglas, John Prince 1796 –
1870, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1980.
“A
Brother who was about to visit England offered to personally communicate with the
authorities there. He did so .... In July
1822, R.W. Bro. Simon McGillivray arrived from England, bearing his appointment as
Provincial Grand Master”
The brother
first mentioned was John B. Laughton who visited England in 1820 armed with document from
Bro. John Dean, the secretary of the Kingston Convention.
Visiting the Masonic authorities in London, he laid the case of the Canadian
Masons before them with such vigor that it had its material effect in the action of the
Grand Lodge of England.
John B. Laugton
was born in Detroit in 1790, just one year after George Washington was inaugurated as
President. The Union Jack was still flying
over Fort Detroit. Six years later when the
Fort was peacefully surrendered in 1796, he removed with his father, Peter Laughton, to an
island on the River St. Clair. It
was then
known as Stromness of Thompson’s and later as Dickenson’s Island to which his
grandfather had some claim under a lease from the Indians.
When he was twelve yeas old, his father died and the boy was apprenticed to
a trade at Amherstburg; but in 1810, being then in his twentieth year, he returned to the
island with a large amount of farming stock, all of which he unfortunately lost a few
years later in the War of 1812. He then
joined the Canadian Militia and engaged in the transport between Burlington Heights and
York (Toronto). He was present at many
frontier battles including Lundy’s Lane at which he was taken prisoner and he
afterwards received a pension from the government.
It is assumed
that he was a member of Ancaster Lodge, because when he attended the Kingston Convention,
he was a member of Hiram Chapter R.A.M. of Ancaster.
In 1841 at the
age of fifty-one he was an auctioneer (probably in the fur trade) at Amherstburg and from
the village of Windsor he addressed a letter to the secretary of St. Andrew’s Lodge,
his old friend Bro. John Dean, asking his advice as to the best method of obtaining a
warrant for a new Masonic Lodge. The minutes
of St. Andrew’s Lodge No. 1 Toronto for the 13th of July, 1841, mention that a letter
was read from John B. Laughton....
“Who it
will be remembered in 1820 journeyed to England as the agent of the Grand Masonic
Convention at Kingston and did so much good work for the Craft in connection with the
reorganization and formation of the second Provincial Grand Lodge.”
He evidently
made good use of the advice received because dispensation was granted for the formation of
Thistle Lodge, Amherstburg in 1849 and for Rose Lodge No. 30 of Sandwich in 1850. The history of Thistle Lodge No. 14 (afterwards
No. 19 now No. 34) states:
“The
lodge was instituted at a Masonic convention held in Amherstburg on February 24th, 1849,
the following members of the Craft being present: -John B. Laughton, James Gott, James
Borrowman, John Mantock, William Griffiths, Richard Atkinson and John Campbell.
The
following resolutions were passed:-
(1) That
a petition be presented to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Canada-West for a warrant to form
a new Lodge at Amherstburg C.W.
(2) That John B. Laughton be the first W.M., John W.
Campbell, first Senior Warden, James Gott, Junior Warden of said lodge.
(3) That the name of the Lodge be “Thistle”
and that Bro. Campbell be secretary pro tem.”
Thistle Lodge
was duly consecrated on August 21st, 1849, by Rev. William Ritchie of St. John’s
Sandwich. A letter was read by the secretary
granting dispensation from Sir Allen Napier Macnab, Grand Master of the Provincial Grand
Lodge of Canada West. Rt. W.B.Col. Levi Cook,
special deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan was the Installing Master. “The Amherstburg Courier” of August
25th, carried a very detailed full page account of the proceedings, a copy of which is
preserved at the Fort Malden Museum.
Wor. Bro. John
B. Laughton was evidently well-known in both Amherstburg and Sandwich because we find that
he was a Church Warden of St. John’s Anglican Church, Sandwich during the troublesome
times of 1837 - 1840 and again after completing his term as Wor. Master of Thistle Lodge
he was elected to be the first Wor. Master of Rose Lodge No. 30 of Sandwich.”
V.W.B. William Doran, P.G.S., A Masonic
Story of Old Sandwich and Windsor, Ontario, 1962, p . 9 - 10.