Bound in London in 1767, this Bible was brought to the colonies and given by Jonathan Hampton to the St. John’s Lodge in lower Manhattan three years later when he became its Grand Master.
Just before Washington was to take his oath of office on the steps of Federal Hall in New York City on 30 April 1789, it was discovered that there was no Bible on hand. The then New York Governor, Robert Livingston, a Masonic Grand Master, borrowed the Bible from St. John’s Lodge, which had meeting rooms just a short distance away. A statue of Washington marks the site in front of the present-day Federal Hall on Wall Street.