The title of “Sir” was bestowed upon Prime Minister John A. Macdonald on the morning of July 1, 1867, Dominion Day, in Ottawa. It is common for most Canadians to refer to our first Prime Minister as “Sir John A”, but the knighthood that made Macdonald Knight Commander in 1867 was not his first ascension to an order of knights. A document in the Ottawa archives shows he was appointed a member of the Knights Templar 13 years earlier.

THE TEMPLARS IN CANADA

Macdonald’s family immigrated to Kingston, Ontario in 1820 from Scotland, where John Alexander would later begin his practice as a lawyer. Twenty years earlier in the same town, according to the 1890 document “History Of Knights Templar In Canada” by J. Ross Robertson, the first encampment of Templars in Canada began.

This Encampment was known as “No.1 or St. John’s in the Town of Kingston”, and met in the house of Sir George Millward, known by the sign of the Old King’s Head. This Templar encampment was also known as St. John’s Encampment No.1.

Macdonald would enter politics at a municipal level, serving as alderman in Kingston from 1843–46. He took an increasingly active part in Conservative politics and by 1844 (at age 29) was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province Of Canada to represent Kingston. A year later he was made a Royal Arch Mason.

Ten years later Macdonald became a member of the Knights Templar. How do we know this is true?

In Ottawa, within the Library and Archives Of Canada, there lies a document “e008303514-v6” that looks to be Sir John A. Macdonald’s registration certificate with the Masonic Knights Templar, dated June 15th 1854.

Written in brush script are the words:

“This is to certify that Companion John Alexander Macdonald of the Royal Arch Chapter 491 meeting in Kingston in Canada West and called The Ancient Frontenac Chapter and who was installed on the 10th day of April AL 5858 a Knight Companion of the Order of Masonic Knights Templar in the Hugh de Payens Encampment meeting in Kingston…”

Hugues de Payens was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar in 1118 AD.

It seems the Templars were alive and well operating their first encampment in Kingston, and Macdonald became a Knight of the Order 13 years before he would be given his official title of “Sir” as Prime Minister of Canada.

THE TEMPLAR PRIME MINISTER

So what did our first Prime Minister, being a member of the Knights Templar, mean for Canada? Well, one could speculate that a large network of Templars and members of the related Masonic order were working together to shape this country. The founding fathers did the same in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and James Munroe were all part of the Masonic order shaping America to their doctrine.

In Canada it was no different, Sir John A Macdonald, and the Fathers Of Confederation were part of this secret society, including the second Prime Minister, Sir John Abbott. There were thirty-seven men called the “Fathers Of Confederation” that shaped this country as we know it. Eleven of these men were Freemasons.

Hewitt Bernard, Sir Alexander Campbell, Sir Frederick Bowker Terrington Carter, Edward Barron Chandler, Alexander Tilloch Galt, John Hamilton Gray, Thomas Haviland, William Alexander Henry, William Henry Pope, Sir Leonard Tilley, and Sir John A. Macdonald. Whether by coincidence or planning, almost a third of Canada’s Confederation Fathers were part of this ancient order.

 

 

The capital of Canada, OTTAWA, was not only being governed by the Knights Templar and Freemasons, but it was also being built according to their ideals and symbology, hidden in the architecture that we see today. (More on that in a previous post HERE)

Many of Ottawa’s parliamentary buildings built during the time of Confederation were designed with a Templar and Masonic theme, with Dominion Architect Thomas Fuller, also being a member of the Masonic Templars. There was no escaping it.

Proof of our first Prime Minister being a Templar Knight is not only in the the document within the archive building, but it can also be seen in Kingston, where it all began.

Behind the windowless lodge of the Kingston Masonic Temple, in a glass case there lies Macdonald’s gilded apron and gauntlets, along with his regalia as Past Grand Senior Warden of the ancient order.

It is not known how many current members of parliament are members of this ancient order, but I’m sure they are some still operating as they have been for centuries, Knights Of The Political Round Tables of this country…

Andrew King September 2018

SOURCES

http://www.hamiltonvalleyscottishrite.com/Miscellaneous/Blogs/April-2018/Sir-John-A-MacDonald-a-k-a-R-W-Bro-John-A-Mac-(1)

https://books.google.ca/books?id=NAQBAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Library and Archives Canada