President 1817-1825 / Master Mason 1776

Entered Apprentice in Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 at Williamsburg, VA., on November 9, 1775.  Sadly there is no record of his taking any further degrees beyond the first.

The records of Cumberland Lodge no. 8 in Tennessee, June 8, 1819, show a reception for Monroe as “a Brother of the Craft.” possibly a Master Mason in 1776.

Said of the Masonic president James Monroe, he was an “Episcopalian of deistic tendencies who valued civic virtues above religious doctrine.” Stating in his first inaugural address the concept of religious freedom, “boasting that Americans may worship ‘the Divine Author’ in any manner they choose.” From The Religion of James Monroe, in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn, 2003.