Seán O'Néill, 32°
5018 Woodland Way
Annandale, Virginia 22003–4161
xyz345@aol.com

September, our ninth month, was derived from the Latin septem, meaning seven. It was the seventh month of the early Roman calendar and maintained this misleading etymology even after the modern 12-month calendar was established.

September 1764 was a time of great ferment in the American colonies, especially for Brother John Hancock. Having been Raised in St. Andrew's Lodge in Boston in 1762, he and his Lodge Brothers, Paul Revere and Joseph Warren, objected in the strongest terms to the Sugar Act, which enforced a duty of three pence on molasses. What alarmed the colonists was not the size of the tax, but the fact that it was levied to collect revenue entirely for the Crown. Sam Adams and James Otis immediately raised the cry that taxation without representation (without the vote) was illegal and arbitrary. Thus began John Hancock's march toward revolution.

A charismatic and prominent merchant, Brother Hancock was respected for his integrity and courage. The British Loyalists, however, detested him, and there was a ditty, set to the tune of "Yankee Doodle," expressing the Loyalist desire to tar and feather Hancock. Being wealthy, Hancock had much to lose from war and the disruption of shipping and commerce. Yet he not only signed the Declaration of Independence, he also wrote large and signed first. Hancock had made his final choice as a patriot, boldly stepping beyond any possible leniency if the rebellion failed.

Freemasons throughout history have been called upon in public and private ways to courageously assert their beliefs, even in the face of personal loss and danger. Perhaps a writer for The London Magazine (1775), a publication hostile to American independence, described our Brother in a way that sets a goal for Masons today: "The name of Hancock will vibrate through the earth, the defender of his country, the assertor of the rights of mankind—and the immortal champion of liberty…. America will become the asylum of the world, and her victorious standard will fly with glory in the last."

Seán O'Néill is a psychotherapist in private practice in Annandale, Virginia. He is a member of the Education Committee of the Scottish Rite Valley of Alexandria, Virginia, the District Educational Officer for Virginia Masonic District 1-A, Lodge Education Officer of Ft. Hunt Daytime Lodge No. 353, and Senior Warden of Skidmore Daylight Lodge No. 237. He is also a member of Knights Templar, Shrine, and Allied Masonic Degrees, a patron of the Eastern Star, and an adviser to the International Order of DeMolay.