The organisation now known as the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded on 24 June 1717 as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Originally concerned with the practice of Freemasonry in London and Westminster, it soon became known as the Grand Lodge of England. Because it was the first Masonic Grand Lodge to be created, modern convention now calls it the Premier Grand Lodge of England in order to distinguish it from the Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Constitutions, usually referred to as the Ancient Grand Lodge of England, and the Grand Lodge of All England Meeting at York. It existed until 1813, when it united with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England to create the United Grand Lodge of England.[1]
The basic principles of the Grand Lodge of England were inspired by the ideal of tolerance and universal understanding of the Enlightenment and by the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century.
Foundation
Table of lodges affiliated to the Grand Lodge, 1735.
Officially, the Grand Lodge of England was founded in London on St. John the Baptist's day, 24 June 1717, when four existing Lodges gathered at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Paul's Church-yard in London and constituted themselves a Grand Lodge. The four lodges had previously met together in 1716 at the Apple-Tree Tavern, "and having put into the Chair the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge), they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in due form." It was at that meeting in 1716 that they resolved to hold the Annual Assembly and Feast and then choose a Grand Master from among themselves, which they did the following year. All four lodges were simply named after the public houses where they were accustomed to meet, at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Paul's Church-yard (Lodge now called Lodge of Antiquity No. 2); the Crown Ale-house in Parker's Lane off Drury Lane; the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden (Lodge now called Lodge of Fortitude and Old Cumberland No. 12); and the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel Row, Westminster (Lodge now called Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge No. IV).[citation needed]
While the three London lodges were mainly operative lodges, the Rummer and Grapes, by the Palace of Westminster, appears to have been primarily a lodge of accepted and speculative gentlemen masons.[3][4]
Little is known of Anthony Sayer, the first Grand Master, but the next, George Payne, rose to a high position within the Commissioners of Taxes. Payne served as Grand Master twice, in 1718–19, and 1720–21. The year in between was taken by John Theophilus Desaguliers, a scientist, clergyman, and a pupil of Newton. Thereafter, every Grand Master was a member of the nobility, although in these early years, it is unlikely that they were anything more than figureheads. The intention was to raise the public profile of the society, which evidently succeeded. In 1725, aside from London Lodges, the minutes of Grand Lodge show lodges at Bath, Bristol, Norwich, Chichester, Chester, Reading, Gosport, Carmarthen, Salford, and Warwick, and embryonic Provincial Grand Lodges in Cheshire and South Wales. The Grand Lodge was outgrowing London.[1]
The Book of Constitutions
George Payne took it upon himself to write the General Regulations of a Free Mason[sic],[5] which were recited at his second installation as Grand Master in 1720. Very little is known of the period from 1717 to 1721, due to lack of minutes and written material, but sometime during this period the Revd. Dr. James Anderson was either commissioned or took it upon himself to write The Constitutions of the Free-Masons containing the History, Charges, Regulations, & of that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity: For use of the Lodges. According to Anderson, he was commissioned to digest the old Gothic Constitutions of Freemasonry. The book was submitted for approval to Grand Lodge, and published by order of the Grand Master in 1723, with the addition of the outgoing Grand Masters method of constituting a new Masonic Lodge. It started with Desagulier's dedication to the previous Grand Master, John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu. There followed a long "Historical" introduction, tracing Freemasonry back to biblical times, a set of six "Charges" (masonic obligations), an expanded version of Payne's Regulations, Grand Master Wharton's method of constituting a new lodge, and finally a section of songs. For the first time, all of Freemasonry, except for the ritual, was available in a printed book. Anderson received no remuneration from the pocket editions which started to appear in the 1730s, which may have inspired the revised edition of 1738.[6][7]
Expansion and conflict
Hogarth's Night The drunk receiving the contents of a bucket is wearing a masonic master's jewel, and his servant's sword indicates a tyler. The man with the mop may be an allusion to the Tyler erasing chalk marks from the lodge floor. The Rummer and Grapes on the inn sign depict one of the four lodges which founded Grand Lodge
The new Grand Lodge was evidently not immediately attractive to the older "St. John's" or independent lodges, who already found much to dislike about the organisation. It had been their custom to mark the lodge out in chalk, which would be erased with a mop and bucket. This began to be replaced with tape and thin metal letters, hence an advertisement in a London newspaper in 1726 for a lecture on "Ante-Diluvian Masonry. Showing what innovations have lately been introduced by the Doctor and some other of the Moderns, with their Tape, Jacks, and Movable Letters, Blazing Stars, etc., to the great indignity of the Mop and Pail."[8]
The second quarter of the 18th century saw the London organisation flourish as the Grand Lodge of England. However, the rapidity of growth saw some lodges fail in their first year. A crop of disaffected ex-masons brought a few published exposures, the most successful being Pritchard's "Masonry Dissected", in 1730. As this contained a recognisable representation of all three degrees, with the secrets that would supposedly ensure admission to a Masonic Lodge, Grand Lodge made a few changes to their ritual and password which took them out of step with the new Grand Lodges in Ireland and Scotland. This also widened the gulf between a relatively new Grand Lodge, and many unaffiliated lodges in the country, who viewed with extreme suspicion any departure from the "Ancient Landmarks".[9]
When, in 1721, the Grand Lodge secured John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu as their first noble Grand Master, a foot parade was staged at his installation. This became an annual event, with later processions being conducted in carriages. As every notable admission into the fraternity was heralded in print, an aura of elitism attracted scorn, and the annual processions attracted ridicule and finally, physical parody. In the 1740s, being followed down the road by the "Scald Miserable Masons" became too much, and Masonic Processions were banned by Grand Lodge in 1747.[1]
In 1751, a group of unaffiliated lodges of mainly Irish membership formed the Grand Committee of what would become the Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Constitutions, now known as the Ancients. This society, which adhered to what it believed to be an older and more authentic ritual than the original Grand Lodge, grew rapidly under the influence of Laurence Dermott, who was Grand Secretary from 1752 to 1771, and deputy Grand Master intermittently thereafter. (As the Grand Masters of the period were mainly noble figureheads, it was the Deputy Grand Master who actually directed the Grand Lodge.) It also benefited from early recognition by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland.[1]
Dermott wrote a new Book of Constitutions for his Grand Lodge, entitled Ahiman Rezon. Published in 1756, the first edition expressed a wish for reconciliation with the other Grand Lodge. The second edition, in 1764, turned on their "unconstitutional fopperies". The Premier Grand Lodge were already referred to as the "Moderns", and Dermott made sure that the epithet stuck, his own Grand Lodge becoming known to history as the Ancients. Succeeding editions heaped ever more scorn on the Premier Grand Lodge. Dermott's prose was bitingly sarcastic, and witty. Ahiman Rezon sold well.[10][11]
Also in 1764, a lodge of Edinburgh masons, who had only joined the previous year, seceded to the Moderns. These were instrumental in the formation of the first Grand Chapter of Royal Arch masonry. Among their members was William Preston, who within a decade, had become a valued writer and lecturer on Masonry. The success in the 1770s of Preston's lectures, and his book, entitled "Illustrations of Masonry", led to his appointment as assistant Grand Secretary, and his election as Master of the Lodge of Antiquity, formerly the Goose and Gridiron, and reputedly the oldest lodge in the constitution.[12]
Preston's position as Assistant Grand Secretary enabled him to correspond with the Grand Lodge of Scotland, casting doubt on the regularity of the Ancients, and attempting to sever the ties between the Ancients and the Scots. This was a predictable failure, and further poisoned the relationship between the two London Grand Lodges. The huge influx of new masons at Preston's Antiquity led to discontent among the longer serving lodge members, and he also managed to fall out with Grand Secretary Heseltine. When he and a few others walked to lodge from church in their regalia one Sunday, his enemies made the incident into an unauthorised procession. Preston unrepentantly cited Antiquity's precedence as a founding "time immemorial" lodge, and was expelled, taking half of Antiquity with him. They allied themselves with the Grand Lodge of All England at York, and for ten years, from 1779 to 1789, became the Grand Lodge of All England South of the River Trent.[12][13]
Whilst the new Grand Chapter had been set up with the Grand Master, Lord Blayney, at its head, Grand Secretary Heseltine continued to write to Provincial Lodges assuring them that Royal Arch masonry had no part in regular masonry, although he was himself one of the founders of Grand Chapter.[14]Thomas Dunckerley, the Grand Superintendent of the new Grand Chapter, had considerable success in spreading Royal Arch, Mark, and Templar masonry in the Southern provinces of the Moderns, and assisted Heseltine and Preston in starting to move Freemasonry out of inns and into dedicated masonic buildings. The official attitude towards the Royal Arch remained antagonistic, which proved difficult as the two Grand Lodges moved towards union in the next century.[15][16]
Union with the Ancients
Relations between the two major bodies in English Freemasonry experienced a thaw in the 1790s. It is hard not to correlate this with the death of Dermott in 1791, and the progressive editing out of his vitriol from Ahiman Rezon, but other factors contributed. John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl became Grand Master of the Ancients, and Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Earl of Moira became Acting Grand Master of the Moderns (the Grand Master being the Prince of Wales). Neither of these noblemen was content to be a mere figurehead, and in 1799 they were forced to act together, in company with representatives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, to keep Freemasonry from being outlawed. Fear of Napoleon's spies prompted the Unlawful Societies Act, prohibiting any association bound by secret oaths, and the united representations of the three Grand Lodges induced the Government to make a specific exception of the lodges of Freemasons.[17]
Progress towards union remained slow, until the Moderns formed the "Lodge of Promulgation" in 1809, for the purpose of reverting their ritual to a point where it was in step with the Ancients, the Scots and the Irish.[18] One of their resolutions was that the ceremony of installation (of a new master of a lodge) was part of "Antient" masonry. They then obliged their own uninstalled masters and the masters of the London lodges to undergo the ritual in three meetings during December 1810 and January 1811.[19] That year, the Moderns formally told the Ancients that they had resolved to return to the older ritual, and the process of union began. At the end of 1812, the Earl of Moira resigned to take up the post of Governor of India, and the Duke of Sussex became Grand Master on the resignation of his brother, the Prince Regent. On 1 December 1813, the Duke of Atholl resigned the leadership of the Ancients. The Duke of Kent, the older brother of Sussex and the father of Queen Victoria took over. He had already united the Ancients and Moderns in Canada. He simply merged the lodges of the Moderns with the nearest lodge of the Ancients. In other words, he abolished the Canadian Moderns.[20] So it was that on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, 27 December 1813, the two English Grand Lodges came together to form the United Grand Lodge of England, with the Duke of Sussex as Grand Master.[16]
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups:
The history of Freemasonry encompasses the origins, evolution and defining events of the fraternal organisation known as Freemasonry. It covers three phases. Firstly, the emergence of organised lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages, then the admission of lay members as "accepted" or "speculative" masons, and finally the evolution of purely speculative lodges, and the emergence of Grand Lodges to govern them. The watershed in this process is generally taken to be the formation of the first Grand Lodge in London in 1717. The two difficulties facing historians are the paucity of written material, even down to the 19th century, and the misinformation generated by masons and non-masons alike from the earliest years.
In Freemasonry, regularity is one of the factors by which individual Grand Lodges judge whether to recognise one another for the purposes of allowing formal interaction at the Grand Lodge level and visitation by members of other jurisdictions. Each individual Grand Lodge determines which other Grand Lodges it considers Regular.
William Preston was a Scottish author, editor and lecturer, born in Edinburgh. After attending school and college he became secretary to the linguist Thomas Ruddiman, who became his guardian on the death of his father. On the death of Thomas, Preston became a printer for Walter Ruddiman, Thomas' brother. In 1760 he moved to London and started a distinguished career with the printer William Strahan. He became a Freemason, instituting a system of lectures of instruction, and publishing Illustrations of Masonry, which ran to several editions. It was under Preston that the Lodge of Antiquity seceded from the Moderns Grand Lodge to become "The Grand Lodge of All England South of the River Trent" for ten years. He died on 1 April 1818, after a long illness, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron Tavern in London, it is considered to be the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in the world. Together with the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the Grand Lodge of Ireland, they are often referred to by their members as "the home Grand Lodges" or "the Home Constitutions".
The Grand Lodge of Ireland is the second most senior Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the world, and the oldest in continuous existence. Since no specific record of its foundation exists, 1725 is the year celebrated in Grand Lodge anniversaries, as the oldest reference to Grand Lodge of Ireland comes from the Dublin Weekly Journal of 26 June 1725. This describes a meeting of the Grand Lodge to install the new Grand Master, The 1st Earl of Rosse, on 24 June. The Grand Lodge has regular Masonic jurisdiction over 13 Provincial Grand Lodges covering all the Freemasons of the island of Ireland, and another 11 provinces worldwide.
James Anderson was a Scottish writer and minister born and educated in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland in 1707 and moved to London, where he ministered to the Glass House Street congregation until 1710, to the Presbyterian church in Swallow Street until 1734, and at Lisle Street Chapel until his death. He is reported to have lost a large sum of money in the South Sea Company crash of 1720. Anderson is best known for his association with Freemasonry.
The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, officially The Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdictions Thereunto Belonging, is the premier masonic organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Grand Lodge claims to be the oldest in the United States, and the third oldest in the world after England and Ireland, having been originally established as the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1731. This claim is disputed by both the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and the Grand Lodge of Virginia.
There are many organisations and orders which form part of the widespread fraternity of Freemasonry, each having its own structure and terminology. Collectively these may be referred to as Masonic bodies, Masonic orders or appendant bodies of Freemasonry.
There are a number of masonic manuscripts that are important in the study of the emergence of Freemasonry. Most numerous are the Old Charges or Constitutions. These documents outlined a "history" of masonry, tracing its origins to a biblical or classical root, followed by the regulations of the organisation, and the responsibilities of its different grades. More rare are old hand-written copies of ritual, affording a limited understanding of early masonic rites. All of those which pre-date the formation of Grand Lodges are found in Scotland and Ireland, and show such similarity that the Irish rituals are usually assumed to be of Scottish origin. The earliest Minutes of lodges formed before the first Grand Lodge are also located in Scotland. Early records of the first Grand Lodge in 1717 allow an elementary understanding of the immediate pre-Grand Lodge era and some insight into the personalities and events that shaped early-18th-century Freemasonry in Britain.
Laurence Dermott was born in Ireland and became a Freemason in 1741. He held various offices before being installed as Worshipful Master of Lodge No. 26 in Dublin on 24 June 1746. He moved to London in 1748, possibly working as a journeyman painter, and possibly with a view to expanding his father's business. He would later work as a wine merchant, like his father. He was married to Elizabeth Dermott but his will does not list any children. He lived in Aldgate, Mile End and Stepney. He served as Grand Secretary of the Ancient Grand Lodge of England from 1752 to 1771. He wrote and published the Book of Constitutions of this Grand Lodge for the Ancient Grand Lodge of England, which he titled the Ahiman Rezon. Above all, it was Dermott's drive and tenacity that is credited with turning an association of six London lodges in 1751 into a viable and successful Grand Lodge, with lodges throughout England and the colonies.
The Book of Constitutions of this Grand Lodge or Ahiman Rezon was a constitution written by Laurence Dermott for the Ancient Grand Lodge of England which was formed in 1751. The formation of the Ancient Grand Lodge brought together lodges and Masons who, believing themselves to be part of an older, original Masonic tradition, had chosen not to ally themselves with the previously formed Moderns Grand Lodge of 1717.
The Ancient Grand Lodge of England, as it is known today, or The Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons as they described themselves on their warrants, was a rival Grand Lodge to the Premier Grand Lodge of England. It existed from 1751 until 1813 when the United Grand Lodge of England was created from the two Grand Lodges. They are now called the Antients, in contrast to the Moderns, the original Grand Lodge which its critics, notably Laurence Dermott, said had moved away from the ritual of Scotland, Ireland, and now the Antient Grand Lodge. This Grand Lodge was also informally called the Atholl Grand Lodge because the Third and Fourth Dukes of Atholl presided over it as Grand Masters for half of its 62-year existence.
This is a chronology of the formation of "regular" or "mainstream" Masonic Grand Lodges in North America, descending from the Premier Grand Lodge of England or its rival, the Antient Grand Lodge of England. A Grand Lodge is the governing body that supervises "Craft" Freemasonry in a particular jurisdiction or geographical area.
The Royal Arch is a degree of Freemasonry. The Royal Arch is present in all main masonic systems, though in some it is worked as part of Craft ('mainstream') Freemasonry, and in others in an appendant ('additional') order. Royal Arch Masons meet as a Chapter; in the Supreme Order of the Royal Arch as practised in the British Isles, much of Europe and the Commonwealth, Chapters confer the single degree of Royal Arch Mason.
Royal Arch Masonry is the first part of the York Rite system of the Masonic degrees. Royal Arch Masons meet as a Chapter, and the Royal Arch Chapter confers four degrees: Mark Master Mason, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason.
Thomas Dunckerley was a prominent freemason, being appointed Provincial Grand Master of several provinces, promoting Royal Arch masonry, introducing Mark Masonry to England, and instituting a national body for Templar masonry. This was made possible by an annuity of £100, rising to £800, which he obtained from King George III by claiming to be his father's illegitimate half brother.
Freemasonry in Scotland in lodges chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland comprises the Scottish Masonic Constitution as regular Masonic jurisdiction for the majority of freemasons in Scotland. There are also lodges operating under the Scottish Masonic Constitution in countries outside of Scotland. Many of these are countries linked to Scotland and the United Kingdom through the Commonwealth of Nations and prior colonies and other settlements of the British Empire although there are several lodges in countries such as Lebanon, Belgium, Chile and Peru, which do not have such connections.
James King, 4th Baron Kingston was a British member of the peerage. King was a prominent freemason, being the Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England for 1728–1730 and also Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland for 1731–1732 and 1735–1736. He was also a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. Despite being born in France to Jacobite parents, he was naturalised at the age of 13 years old on 8 January 1707 as a British subject and was a Protestant.
References
1 2 3 4 Douglas Knoop, The Genesis of Freemasonry, Manchester University Press, 1947
↑ F. De P. Castells, The Origin of the Masonic Degrees, (reprinted) Kessinger Publishing, 2003, pp. 39–40
↑ Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon The Formation of the Grand Lodge of the Antients, I. R. Clarke, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol 79 (1966), p. 270-73, retrieved 28 June 2012
1 2 Phoenix MasonryArchived 20 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine Gordon P. G. Hills, Brother William Preston, an Illustration of the Man, his Methods and his Work. Prestonian Lecture, 1927
↑ Witham Matthew Bywater, Notes on Laurence Dermott G.S. and his Work, London, 1884
↑ Phoenix Masonry Bernard E.Jones, Freemason's Book of the Royal Arch, revised Carr, 1966, retrieved 23 September 2012
1 2 Pietre-Stones The Fourth Degree in the Craft, Yasha Beringer, retrieved 19 July 2012
↑ Pietre Stones The Unlawful Societies Act of 1799, Dr Andrew Prescott, from M. D. J. Scanlan, ed., The Social Impact of Freemasonry on the Modern Western World The Canonbury Papers I (London: Canonbury Masonic Research Centre, 2002), pp. 116–134, retrieved 13 July 2012
↑ Pietre-Stones Lodges of Instruction, Yasha Beresiner, retrieved 17 July 2012
↑ Phoenix Masonry R. F. Gould, History of Freemasonry, vol II, (rev Wright 1936), p. 229
↑ John Hamill, The Craft, a History of English Freemasonry, Crucible 1986, pp. 159–160
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