Collect Day #36, NERO PRINCE
O Lord, your presence in our lives knows no national boundary or constraint of time; we remember today Nero Prince whose life’s travels took him far from Henniker, New Hampshire and led to the court of Czar Alexander I. May he be forgiven for his wandering heart and dubious service as we also remember that he lived at a time in this country when many black citizens were not either free or honored; through the one whose love is known worldwide, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
DAY #36, April 16, 2019
HENNIKER, NH & BOSTON
NERO PRINCE (? –c. 1834)
Edith Butler
Nero Prince is perhaps best known as grandmaster of the nation’s first Black Masons lodge. African Masonic Lodge No. 459 was founded in Boston in 1778 and later became Prince Hall Grand Lodge (Freemasons). Nero Prince became its second grandmaster in 1807 but served only a year, leaving to travel to Russia and work for the family of Czar Alexander I.
Not much is known about Prince’s early life, except that he was a seaman and may have been born in Marlborough, MA. He was known in that area’s Black community, as well as the small Black community of Henniker, NH, where he married a daughter of African American Caesar Bradish. He apparently left that wife and later married Nancy Gardner of Newburyport, MA, who lived with him in Saint Petersburg, and, as a widow, wrote a book, A Black Woman’s Odyssey Through Russia and Jamaica.
Prince was among a number of Blacks employed at the Russian court over the years, a practice believed to date back to the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), who was given an abducted African child. This child grew up in Peter the Great’s household, rose to the rank of general in the Czar’s army, and was the great-grandfather of poet Alexander Pushkin.
One historian notes that Nero Prince helped the czar put down the Decembrist revolt that aimed to end serfdom, and also helped rebuild St. Petersburg after the great flood of 1824, which killed thousands and almost claimed Nancy’s life.
Nero died in Russia about 1834 and is presumed to be buried there. His wife, Nancy, whose health was affected by the harsh Russian winters, already had returned to America to wait for him.
