La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in 1776, was a prominent French

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

of the

Grand Orient de France The Grand Orient de France (GODF) is the oldest and largest of several Freemasonic organizations based in France and is the oldest in Continental Europe (as it was formed out of an older Grand Lodge of France in 1773, and briefly absorbed the ...

that was influential in organising French support for the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. A "Société des Neuf Sœurs," a charitable society that surveyed academic curricula, had been active at the Académie Royale des Sciences since 1769. Its name referred to the nine

Muses In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

, the daughters of Mnemosyne/Memory, patrons of the arts and sciences since antiquity, and long significant in French cultural circles. The Lodge of similar name and purpose was opened in 1776, by Jérôme de Lalande. From the start of the French Revolution in 1789 until 1792, Les Neuf Sœurs became a "Société Nationale". During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, while the Académie Royale des Sciences et des Arts was drastically reorganised, two members of the lodge,

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an ...

and Gilbert Romme, in collaboration with Henri Grégoire, helped to organise a "Société Libre des Sciences, Belles Lettres et Arts", to subsidise what had become the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institut ...

so as to keep the original influence of the "Neuf Soeurs" intact. (Hahn, 1971) The lodge was reconstituted under its original name in 1805, ceased operation from 1829–1836, and finally closed in 1848. Its former location is thought to be on the

Rue de la Bûcherie Rue de la Bûcherie is a street in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. History Near the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris and the Place Maubert, between La Seine and Boulevard Saint-Germain Rue de la Bûcherie is one of the oldest Rive Gau ...

on the Left Bank across from Notre-Dame. Its successive "Venerable Masters" of the first decade were

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

(1779–1781), Marquis de La Salle (1781–1783), Milly (1783–1784), Charles Dupaty (1784), Elie de Beaumont (1784–1785), and Claude Pastoret (1788–1789) (Ligou, 1987).

The Americans

In 1778, the year

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

became a member,

and

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

also were accepted along with

Jean Sylvain Bailly Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of Par ...

. Benjamin Franklin became Master of the Lodge in 1779, and was re-elected in 1780. When Franklin, after a long and influential stay in Europe, returned to America to participate in the writing of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson a non-Mason took over as American Envoy.

Jean-Antoine Houdon Jean-Antoine Houdon (; 20 March 1741 – 15 July 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor. Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects included De ...

, a member of Les Neuf Sœurs, added Jefferson's marble bust to his corpus of works, which included busts of Franklin and General Lafayette. Jefferson persuaded Houdon to make his famous statue of George Washington, for which Houdon travelled to America in 1785. While Jefferson stayed in Paris, at the Maison des Feuillants, his neighbour was

Jean-François Marmontel Jean-François Marmontel (11 July 1723 – 31 December 1799) was a French historian, writer and a member of the Encyclopédistes movement. Biography He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin (today in Corrèze). After studying with ...

Secretary-for-Life of the Paris Academy of Sciences and another member of the Lodge. At the same time Jefferson's friend, American Founding Father

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

, was the neighbour, at Auteuil, of Anne-Catherine de Ligniville, Madame Helvétius, who hosted the famous Cercle d'Auteuil where the influence of Les Neuf Sœurs was at its highest. In ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du Jacobinisme'' (4 vol.,1797–1798)

Abbé Barruel Augustin Barruel (October 2, 1741 – October 5, 1820) was a French publicist and Jesuit priest. He is now mostly known for setting forth the conspiracy theory involving the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins in his book ''Memoirs Illustrati ...

attributed membership to key figures of the French Revolution like

Jacques Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), who assumed the name of de Warville (an English version of "d'Ouarville", a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property), was a leading member of the Girondins du ...

(Barruel claims Brissot was a member of Neuf Soeurs, although Brissot wrote that he was initiated into a German Lodge but was never active) and

Georges Danton Georges Jacques Danton (; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He became a deputy to the Paris Commune, presided in the Cordeliers district, and visited the Jacobin club. In Augu ...

.The French Revolution and the Bavarian Illuminati
at ''freemasonry.bcy.ca''. Retrieved 2011-10-24.

Members

(1694–1778) — Initiated on April 4, 1778 in Paris; his conductors were Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Court de Gébelin. He died the following month. His membership however was symbolic of the independence of mind Les Neuf Sœurs stood for. *

(1706–1790) *

(1747–1792) * Jean-Nicolas Démeunier (1751–1814) * Claude-Emmanuel de Pastoret (1755–1840) * Antoine Court de Gébelin (1725–1784) *

Camille Desmoulins Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins (; 2 March 17605 April 1794) was a French journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Georges Danton when the Committee ...

(1760–1794) *

Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes Louis-Marcelin, marquis de Fontanes (6 March 175717 March 1821) was a French poet and politician. Biography Born in Niort (Deux-Sèvres), he belonged to a noble Protestant family of Languedoc which had been reduced to poverty by the revocation of ...

(1757–1821) * Nicolas François de Neufchâteau (1750–1828) * Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) *

(1741–1828) * Nicolas Dalayrac (1753–1809) * Bernard de Lacépède (1756–1825) * Adrien-Nicolas Piédefer, marquis de La Salle (1735–1818) *

Carle Vernet Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, better known as Carle Vernet (14 August 175827 November 1836), was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet and the father of Horace Vernet. Biography Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age ...

(1758–1835) *

(1723–1799) *

Pierre-Louis Ginguené Pierre-Louis Ginguené (25 April 1748 – 16 November 1816) was a French author. Biography He was born at Rennes, in Brittany, and educated at a Jesuit college there. He came to Paris in 1772, and wrote criticisms for the ''Mercure de France''. ...

(1748–1815) * Jacques Montgolfier (1745–1799) *

Niccolò Piccinni Niccolò Piccinni (; 16 January 1728 – 7 May 1800) was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly th ...

(1728–1800) *

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (3 May 174820 June 1836), usually known as the Abbé Sieyès (), was a French Roman Catholic '' abbé'', clergyman, and political writer who was the chief political theorist of the French Revolution (1789–1799); he also ...

(1748–1836) *

Nicolas Chamfort Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, known in his adult life as Nicolas Chamfort and as Sébastien Nicolas de Chamfort (; 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794), was a French writer, best known for his epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's siste ...

(1741–1794) * Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1794) * Dominique Joseph Garat (1749–1833) * Pierre Jean George Cabanis (1757–1808) * Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807) * Nicolas Bricaire de la Dixmerie (1731?–1791) * Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune (1741–1814) * Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov (1733–1811) *

(1736–1793) and

Marquis de Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and mathematician. His ideas, including support for a liberal economy, free and equal pu ...

(1743–1794) are often listed as members but no documentation exists as proof. * Eugenio Martin Izquierdo de Rivera y Lazaún (1776–?) *

François Lays François Lay, better known under the stage name Lays (14 February 1758 – 30 March 1831), was a French baritone and tenor opera singer. Originally destined for a career in the church, Lays was recruited by the Paris Opera, Paris Opéra in 177 ...

(1758–1831) Jean Baptiste Moulon de la Chesnaye

References

Notes

Sources

* Louis Amiable, ''Une loge maçonnique d'avant 1789, la loge des Neuf Sœurs'', comméntaire critique – Charles Porset, (Les Editions Maçonnique de France, Paris 1989) * Howard C. Rice, Jr., ''Thomas Jefferson's Paris'' (Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1976) * Roger C. Hahn, ''The anatomy of a scientific institution: 1666–1803, the Paris Academy of Sciences'' (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1971) * Roger C. Hahn, "Quelques nouveaux documents sur Jean Silvain Bailly" in ''Revue d'Histoire des Sciences'' 8 (Paris,1955) pp. 338–353 * Daniel Ligou, ed. ''Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie'' (Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1987) * De La Valette-Mombrun, ''Maine de Biran (1766–1824)'' (Paris 1914) * J.A.C. Sykes ''France in 1802'' (William Heinemann, London 1906)

External links

Les Neuf Sœurs (French and English)National Archives: To Benjamin Franklin From The Loge Des Neuf Soeurs (January 10th, 1780)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Les Neuf Soeurs Freemasonry in France 1776 establishments in France