Oriental
Order of the Palm and Shell
The object of the Masonic Holy
Land League, in whose membership the Pilgrim Knights of the Palm and Shell
were enrolled, was to encourage researches commenced in 1863 under the
leadership of Brother Rob Morris in the Holy Land. These investigations into
the traditions and practices of the ancient Craft in the East, were supported
in 1867 by contributions amounting to $10,000 and an organization was effected
of Master Masons. A ritual was prepared to include various signs, words and
ceremonies, obtained by Doctor Morris from Eastern Freemasons.
The instruction was divided into
the following parts: Preliminary, Covenanting, Drama, Means of Recognition,
and a funeral ceremony for Pilgrim Knights. Rev. Henry R. Coleman, of
Kentucky, became Supreme Chancellor of the Order and in 1906 he published at
Louisville, for the Society, a guide to the ceremonies and lectures entitled
the Pilgrim Knight. Among other items of interest he describes the formation
of a Lodge, the Royal Solomon, at Jerusalem, conditionally promoted by Doctor
Morris in 1868, but actually by a Warrant from the Grand Lodge of Canada,
William Mercer Wilson, Grand Master, and attested by Thomas White, Jr., Deputy
Grand Master, on February 17, 1873; the organizing meeting occurring in the
quarries under Jerusalem on May 7, 1873.
Brother Coleman says: “Under
this authority, a delegate went from the United States to Jerusalem and
calling together a competent number of those named in the Warrant, and others,
the Lodge was regularly and constitutionally organized and has had many years
of prosperous existence up to the issuance of this volume.” The first Degree
was conferred at the Mediterranean Hotel, afterwards a Lodge-room was
established near the Joppa Gate.
