I am Providence, Lovecraft's connection to Freemasonry

      “I am Providence, & Providence is myself—together, indissolubly as one, we stand thro’ the ages; a fixt monument set aeternally in the shadow of Durfee’s ice-clad peak!”

— H. P. Lovecraft, Letter to James Ferdinand Morton

     The narrative of the founding of Providence, Rhode Island reads like an epic poem reminiscent of John Milton’s works Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. This should not be a surprise since the city’s legendary founder was a friend and tutor to the poet.

     In 1631, Rev. Roger Williams arrived in Boston on the HMS Lyon. Within five years, reminiscent of Milton’s Adam and Eve, would find himself cast out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony after being convicted of the crimes of sedition and heresy. However, in contrast, he would soon be delivered from evil. Finding suitable refuge in the land of the Narragansett, he named the settlement Providence, in honor of the divine and merciful providence that God had blessed him with in his time of distress. His city became a shining symbol of liberty of conscience. This symbol would later be enshrined in the Bill of Rights which Rhode Island fought to be included in the United States Constitution.

     The HMS Lyon made four trips to the new world, two of those trips would change the course of history. The first was the journey which ferried a young Roger Williams, on the second in 1632 (its final voyage), heading to the city of Boston, a young teen, John Whipple was aboard and full of hope. On September 16th of that year, he departed the ship and took his first step onto the shore of the new world.

     John Whipple arrived in the new world as a teenager, he fell in love and married Sarah in 1638. John and Sarah had a 45-acre property in Dorchester, but they decided to sell it and move to Providence in 1658. The Whipple’s found success until 1675 when King Phillip’s War came to Providence burning most of the city. John Whipple refusing to flee to Newport like many others would earn his honorary title of Captain after bravely defending the blockhouse killing many Narragansett warriors. With that, the Whipple name was cemented in Rhode Island lore.

     Captain Whipple had 11 children and surprisingly all 11 would live to adulthood and have children of their own, creating a large family tree. His descendants, Stephen Hopkins, his brother, Esek Hopkins, and Brother Abraham Whipple would take their part in the American Revolution but more importantly for our purposes they would feature in a story written by their descendant, famed author H.P. Lovecraft.

     Following the burning of the Liberty by revolutionaries in Newport a ship that was commandeered by the British from Bro. John Hancock. In retaliation to the riot, the British appointed Lt. William Dudingston and his ship the HMS Gaspee to monitor and prevent the smuggling of rum. He was cruel and assaulted several people taking what he wished from the ships.

     Chasing the packet ship Hannah captained by Benjamin Lindsey who refused to be boarded and searched. Capt. Lindsey, knowing Narragansett Bay, was able to get the Gaspee the chase them over the sandbar off Pawtuxet Village causing them to get stuck. The Hannah continued to Providence with Capt. Lindsey rushing to Sabin’s Tavern which housed St. John’s Lodge No. 1 Providence in the upper apartments.

     Brother Whipple an able Captain and his friend and Brother John Brown led a large group of men in row boats to the Gaspee and words were exchanged which ended with a steel ball being fired, hitting Dudingston in the groin. He and the crew were captured and brought to shore and the ship was burned till it sank. Thus, ending the treacherous Dudingston in the colonies. Dudingston did survive but was returned to England.

     In Lovecraft’s story, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” we can draw parallels to the actions the men take in the tale and their later involvement in the Revolution. In the story, Brother Abraham Whipple, the merchant Browns, other men several of whom were Freemasons initially gather at Sabin’s Tavern to stop the ungodly Joseph Curwen. Lovecraft tells us that, “Every man of those leaders had a stirring part to play in later years, and it is perhaps fortunate that this is so. Little more than a twelvemonth afterward Capt. Whipple led the mob who burnt the revenue ship Gaspee, and in this bold act we may trace one step in the blotting out of unwholesome images.”

     Lovecraft held his ancestors in high regard, but he seemed to gravitate toward one in particular. He says the following of his famous relative. “Capt. Abraham Whipple, a privateersman of phenomenal boldness and energy who could be counted on to lead in any active measures needed.” And lead he would. Lovecraft tells us of the preparations made. “According to the Smith diary a company of about 100 men met at 10 P.M. on Friday, April 12th, 1771, in the great room of Thurston’s Tavern at the Sign of the Golden Lion on Weybosset Point across the Bridge. Of the guiding group of prominent men in addition to the leader John Brown there were present Dr. Bowen, with his case of surgical instruments, President Manning without the great periwig (the largest in the Colonies) for which he was noted, Governor Hopkins, wrapped in his dark cloak and accompanied by his seafaring brother Esek, whom he had initiated at the last moment with the permission of the rest, John Carter, Capt. Mathewson, and Capt. Whipple, who was to lead the actual raiding party. These chiefs conferred apart in a rear chamber, after which Capt. Whipple emerged to the great room and gave the gathered seamen their last oaths and instructions.”

     Where would Lovecraft see himself in this impressive lineage? Robert M. Price speculates that Lovecraft created at least one character who was autobiographical in nature. Wilbur Whateley in the story “The Dunwich Horror”, in Price’s opinion is a fictional stand in for Lovecraft himself. Price relates that "Wilbur's being raised by a grandfather instead of a father, his home education from his grandfather's library, his insane mother, his stigma of ugliness (in Lovecraft's case untrue, but a self-image imposed on him by his mother), and his sense of being an outsider all echo Lovecraft himself."

     Lovecraft himself would later reflect that he identified with a different character. In a 1928 letter to August Derleth he would state, "[I] found myself identifying with one of the characters (an aged scholar [Henry Armitage] who finally combats the menace) toward the end". Perhaps the battle between these characters was a subconscious battle of sorts for the author, a battle between the man he was and the man he wished to be.

     This would make Lovecraft’s Grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, Old Whateley, his Mother, Lavinia Whateley, and his Father, Yog-Sothoth who he describes as follows in the story: “Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.”

     In reality, Winfield Scott was Lovecraft’s father. He was committed to Butler mental hospital where he would die when Lovecraft was 8 years old. It is believed that he was suffering from late-stage syphilis which would have demonstrated levels of insanity leaving an impression on H.P.’s young mind. Interestingly, Lovecraft would say until his death that his father became sick from overwork and insomnia.

     Lovecraft’s father’s passing led to Whipple Van Buren Phillips, his maternal Grandfather (the P in H.P. is for Phillips) taking over as Lovecraft’s father figure. Among other pursuits, Phillips was a respected Freemason. He was a member of Manchester Lodge No. 12 and in 1870, he became the charter Master of Ionic Lodge No. 28 in Greene, Rhode Island to which in 1900 he donated a portion of his property to build the lodge building which still stands today.

     We know from Lovecraft’s own words that due to a childhood illness which kept him bound to the house, he spent a great deal of time in his most formative years devouring the books on the shelves in his Grandfather’s vast library. In this space he would develop a love for weird fiction and mythology that would later inform the direction that his writing would take for years to come. While he doesn’t mention them it is very likely that H.P. also got his hands on some of his Grandfather’s Masonic books as well. In “The Dunwich Horrror” it is said that Wilbur “would pore diligently over the queer pictures and charts in his grandfather’s books, while Old Whateley would instruct and catechise him through long, hushed afternoons.”

     Later in the story, in reference to books found in Wilbur Whateley’s library, we learn that “Armitage had an idea that the alphabet might be something esoterically used by certain forbidden cults which have come down from old times, and which have inherited many forms and traditions from the wizards of the Saracenic world. That question, however, he did not deem vital; since it would be unnecessary to know the origin of the symbols if, as he suspected, they were used as a cipher in a modern language. It was his belief that considering the great amount of text involved, the writer would scarcely have wished the trouble of using another speech than his own, save perhaps in certain special formulae and incantations. Accordingly, he attacked the manuscript with the preliminary assumption that the bulk of it was in English.”

     It is not known if H.P. ever entered the Masonic lodge building in Greene but it seems likely that he would have been influenced by the Freemasons who called it home. While it may simply be a coincidence, Lovecraft would later use names like Tillinghast, Wilcox, and Whaley in his tales. It would be a coincidence since these are all names that can be found on the list of the Past Masters of Ionic Lodge No. 28.

It’s also possible that another quasi-Masonic society was even more influential to the future author. We learn in a blog written by Chris Perridas, and dedicated to Phillips (whipplevanburenphillips.blogspot.com), that Lovecraft’s Grandfather was instrumental in starting a lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars in a Hopkins Hollow church. “Far from a cult, it was intended to bridge the gap between ‘secret societies’ and ‘family values’. Starting in New York in 1851, it proposed that men, women, and children all belong for the sole purpose to fight off alcohol use, moderate behavior, teach the highest moral standards possible and keeping children from being unruly by giving them social occasions and specialized training during lodge meetings.”

     H.P. Lovecraft died at the age of 46 from intestinal cancer. He was financially destitute and would never know the cult following that continues to grow for him to this day. In fact, no tombstone was erected for him until the 1970s when fans raised money and placed a proper stone at the location. The fans that laid Lovecraft’s stone decided to have the words “I am Providence” carved into the stone. It can be assumed that the sentiment was that “together, indissolubly as one, [they] stand thro’ the ages.

     In a final twist of irony, Lovecraft would not be buried alongside his famous ancestors. Instead, he would be laid to eternal rest near General Ambrose Burnside who infamously lost 12,653 of the soldiers under his command at the Battle of Fredericksburg. In a 34-part series on the battle in the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star, we read of a scene prescient of Lovecraft, “On the night of Dec. 14, 1862, [as Burnside’s army made its retreat] an unearthly ribbon of light illuminated the sky above Fredericksburg: an aurora borealis. Although it lasted just 30 minutes, this rare spectacle was seen by the Confederates as an omen of triumph, as if ‘the heavens were hanging out banners and streamers and setting off fireworks in honor of our victory.’"

     Perhaps Lovecraft was channeling this when wrote the following in his story “Polaris.”

     “Well do I remember the night of the great Aurora, when over the swamp played the shocking coruscations of the daemon-light. After the beams came clouds, and then I slept.

Written by myself and Michael Jarzabek

Special thanks to Scott Panella for his Rhode Island Masonic Research