Robert Keyworth

Robert Keyworth joined Freemasonry at age 25, being initiated at Lebanon Lodge in 1820. He went on to hold the positions of junior warden, senior warden, and master of his lodge, as well as grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge in 1838 and 1839. Later, from 1840 to 1841 and 1843, he served as grand master. Text from a 1911 book on the history of the Grand Lodge praises that his “unfaltering fidelity to the Craft and zealous discharge of his duties during the period when Masonry was perhaps at its lowest ebb undoubtedly contributed in no small degree to the rehabilitation of the Order in the District.” He also belonged to the local militia, the 1st Regiment, DC Volunteers, where he was commissioned as a major. Trained as a watchmaker, jeweler, and silversmith, he ran his business from Pennsylvania Avenue NW, west of 9th Street. The high quality of his work and his shop’s proximity to the White House made for a good relationship, in which he provided silver for presidential administrations from the 1820s until his death in the 1850s.