Artist/Maker

Coram, Thomas

Place Made

Date Made

1783

Medium

ink, parchment, silk

Dimensions

HOA: 14 3/8″; WOA: 10 3/8″

Accession Number

3540

Description

This manuscript document attests to the membership of “Benjamin Lodge Capt(ai)n 1st P. Reg(imen)t” in Lodge 190 of the Royal Arch Masons of Charleston, South Carolina. It also notes that Lodge at one time served as Master of the Lodge. The “Official Histoy of the Militia and National Guard of the State of Pennsylvania” by Major William Clarke records that a “Captain Benjamin Lodge commanded a troop of light horse attached to the First Regiment” during the American Revolution. Further research may allow us to positively identify this Benjamin Lodge (1749-1801) as the man identified.

This is the earliest documentation of Lodge 190 of The Royal Arch Masons in Charleston. Three of the seven officers and members of the lodge whose names appear on the certificate – Robert Knox, Robert Austin and Tobias Cambridge – are listed in the 1790 U.S. Census for St. Michaels and St. Philips Parish, Charleston, South Carolina.

RELATED WORKS: Paintings by Coram: The Cart Children (MESDA Acc. No. 2672); Mrs. Glover (MESDA Acc. No. 2776.1)

DESCRIPTION: Freemason certificate with image of the Ark of the Covenant with bowing Seraphim; ink on parchment with pink ribbon inserted.

History

Legal Documents

Artist Biography

ARTIST: Thomas Coram (1757-1811) emigrated from Bristol, England, to the colonies in 1769. He went into the mercantile business and joined with twelve other merchants and thirteen planters in an association “to discontinue the Importation of European and East-India Goods and Negroes into this Province.” After 1770 he became an engraver. An ardent supporter of the American Revolution, Coram engraved bills of credit for the State of South Carolina during the war. Coram was the first Charleston artist to use historical subjects; his most ambitious engraving is a three-part print called “The Battle of Fort Moultrie,” published in the 1780s. According to the city directories, Coram listed his profession as “engraver” until 1802. Thereafter he was listed as “painter and engraver.” He was instructed in oil painting by Henry Benbridge, another artist in Charleston, but much of his education came from “the study of nature, and the casual observation of a few good paintings and engravings…The correctness of his copies, and his faithful imitations of nature shew that nothing was wanting, but early opportunities of improvement, and liberal encouragement, to have placed him amongst the first of his profession.” Coram is known for his portraits, as well as several small yet intricate local landscapes. In 1784 he advertised as a drawing master. He was also a benefactor of the Charleston Orphanage, to which he gave numerous works and money. Coram was buried in the cemetary of St. Philips in Charleston.

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. James O. Keene