Who Was Stephen Morin?

(Information taken from "A History of the Supreme Council, 33º of the AASR of
Freemasonry for the NMJ" by George A.

Newbury, published in 1987.)

Etienne Morin, hereinafter referred to as Stephen Morin, deserves the bulk of

the credit for the establishment of the RIte of Perfection in the Western
Hemisphere.

Specific information about his background is hard to find because he has a very
common name for the time period. First accounts of our Stephen Morin note
him being in the West Indies with a connection to Bordeaux, France. It is
believed that Morin was made a Mason in Loge La Francaise in that town in
approximately 1741.

Loge La Francaise is one of the earliest lodges to have taken an early and
intense interest in the Ecossais (or Scottish Rite) degrees. Another lodge that
demonstrated a keen interest in the degrees early on was the Loge Parfaite
Harmonie, of which Morin rose to the position of Master by 1744.
Upon returning to the West Indies, Morin set up an Ecossais Chapter in San
Domingo, a French colony on the island of Hispaniola at the time. Newbury
notes that Morin "was a difficult person, inclined to... overstep his Masonic
authority" (36). This caused him to return to France in 1759 to attend to the
wishes of his superiors.

After this trip to France, where Morin tried to obtain a patent of authority to set
up Masonic Lodges throughout the New World, and a brief detainment in
London by British forces, Morin returned to San Domingo in 1763, patent in
hand, with the intent of promoting the Rite of Perfection throughout the
hemisphere.

Morin appointed several Deputy Inspectors General, and gave them the
authority to spread the "Superior Degrees of Free and Accepted Masons" in
their various territories. While Morin died in 1771, before the first official
Supreme Council was formed at Charleston in 1801, he deserves credit for
laying the foundation of the organization we know so well today.