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47-697: 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

94-537: 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. Preston's position as Assistant Grand Secretary enabled him to correspond with

141-489: 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

188-470: A lodge of accepted and speculative gentlemen masons. 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

235-602: 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. Progress towards union remained slow, until

282-413: 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

329-405: 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

376-468: A particular national or state boundary. Each Grand Lodge functions independently of any other Grand Lodge, setting its own rules and rituals, and determining which other Grand Lodges to recognize. When two Grand Lodges recognize each other they are said to be "in Amity". "Amity" means that the two Grand Lodges recognize each other as being legitimate, and may allow Masons under one Grand Lodge to visit lodges of

423-514: A tub of cold water as a joke. Montagu also commissioned William Hogarth to portray Chief Justice John Willes unflatteringly in a number of cartoons series Before and After (Hogarth) in which lusty amoral rakes seduce women. Montagu's country place, Boughton House , Northamptonshire , was laid out by him as a miniature Versailles, and now belonging to the Buccleuch family. After his death, his town residence, Montagu House, Bloomsbury , on

470-634: 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

517-596: The Grand Master , and the other officers of the Grand Lodge prefix "Grand" to the titles of Lodge officers. Many Grand Lodges have also established Provincial Grand Lodges as an organizational layer between themselves and member Lodges. In the United States, a Grand Lodge will often divide its area of control into "Districts" or "Regions." There is no central body to oversee all of the Grand Lodges in

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564-752: 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 . The basic principles of the Grand Lodge of England were inspired by

611-746: The OES and DeMolay , are also independent. However, these organisations' governing bodies, as a rule, defer to their Grand Lodges as the essential authority over Masonry in their regions. The Odd Fellows , Elks , and other similar fraternal groups also have Grand Lodges, as does the Orange Order , as many of them based their organizational model on that of Freemasonry. John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu , KG , GMB , PC , FRS (1690 – 5 July 1749), styled Viscount Monthermer until 1705 and Marquess of Monthermer between 1705 and 1709,

658-682: The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is also not recognised by any Grand Lodge in amity with UGLE. The largest Grand Orient in the Continental Masonic form is the Grand Orient de France . While the United Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Grand Lodge of Scotland each govern Freemasonry within their respective countries and overseas provinces, Continental European countries typically have more than one Grand Lodge per country. Historically,

705-472: The United States had recognised one Grand Lodge per state, independent of the Grand Lodge of any other state. Today, most have two: a "mainstream" Grand Lodge and a Prince Hall Grand Lodge. All of the "mainstream" Grand Lodges in the United States of America are recognised by each other, and most recognise each other's Prince Hall counterparts. Prince Hall Masonry , which was formed while Masonry in

752-614: 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. 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

799-416: 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. 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

846-699: 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 ). While the three London lodges were mainly operative lodges, the Rummer and Grapes, by the Palace of Westminster , appears to have been primarily

893-676: 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

940-510: The Duke of Sussex as Grand Master. Grand Lodge A Grand Lodge or Grand Orient is the usual governing body of "Craft", "Blue Lodge", or "Symbolic" Freemasonry in a particular jurisdiction . The first Masonic Grand Lodge was established in England in 1717 as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster , soon to call itself the Grand Lodge of England. The head of a Grand Lodge is called

987-589: 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

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1034-747: The Garter in 1719, and was made Order of the Bath , a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1725, and a Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England which was the first Masonic Grand Lodge to be created. On 22 June 1722, George I appointed Montagu governor of the islands of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent in the West Indies. He in turn appointed Nathaniel Uring , a merchant sea captain and adventurer, as deputy-governor. Uring went to

1081-492: 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

1128-406: 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

1175-578: 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 ,

1222-523: 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. 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. That year,

1269-462: The Mop and Pail." 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

1316-601: The River Trent . 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. Thomas Dunckerley , the Grand Superintendent of the new Grand Chapter, had considerable success in spreading Royal Arch, Mark , and Templar masonry in

1363-597: 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. Relations between the two major bodies in English Freemasonry experienced a thaw in the 1790s. It

1410-656: The United States was effectively segregated on racial grounds, has a predominantly black membership. Various philosophical and technical reasons historically prevented US "mainstream" Grand Lodges from recognising or acknowledging Prince Hall Grand Lodges as regular bodies operating in accordance with the Landmarks of Freemasonry. Originally having one Grand Lodge for the whole United States, separate Prince Hall Grand Lodges now operate in most US states and jurisdictions. Many PHGLs also sponsor and govern Prince Hall Lodges abroad, principally on or near US military bases . Since

1457-539: The early 1990s onward, most, but not all, US Grand Lodges and Prince Hall Grand Lodges began to extend mutual recognition and promote visitations and fellowship between their members. Other organisations which only accept Master Masons, such as Scottish Rite and the Shriners , have their own governing bodies, not called Grand Lodges, which are not directly accountable to the Grand Lodge in the jurisdiction in which they operate. Other Masonically affiliated orders, such as

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1504-475: The education of two notable Black British figures of the age, Ignatius Sancho (a butler at his Blackheath home, Montagu House ) and Francis Williams , allegedly sending the latter to Cambridge University (the university has no record of his having studied there). In 1745, Montagu raised a cavalry regiment known as Montagu's Carabineers, which, however, was disbanded after the Battle of Culloden . Montagu

1551-444: 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. 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

1598-604: The ideal of tolerance and universal understanding of the Enlightenment and by the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. The Grand Lodge was founded shortly after George I , the first Hanoverian king of the Kingdom of Great Britain , ascended to the throne on 1 August 1714 and the end of the first Jacobite rising of 1715 . Officially, the Grand Lodge of England was founded in London on St. John

1645-540: The islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get enough support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French. In 1739, the country's first home for abandoned children, the Foundling Hospital was created in London . Montagu was a supporter of this effort and was one of the charity 's founding governors . He also financed

1692-465: 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

1739-663: 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. 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

1786-549: 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. Dermott wrote

1833-590: The other. A Grand Lodge that is not "in amity with" (or recognised by) another Grand Lodge will not permit its members to visit Lodges in the second Grand Lodge's jurisdiction, or vice versa. The cause of a lack of amity is usually due to a perceived or actual violation of one of the Landmarks of Freemasonry . Furthermore, with some exceptions, especially regarding US Grand Lodges' recognition of Grand Lodges in South America, any Grand Lodge not recognised by

1880-597: The present site of the British Museum , received and for many years held the national collections, which under the name of the British Museum were first opened to the public in 1759. Montagu and his wife, Lady Mary Churchill , were parents to five children: As none of Montagu's sons survived him, his titles became extinct upon his death in 1749. His estates were inherited by his daughter Mary, whose husband, George Brudenell, 4th Earl of Cardigan assumed

1927-469: 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". When, in 1721,

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1974-430: The world (nor, indeed, all of Freemasonry), and therefore, individual Grand Lodge policies and practices can and do vary, however, they have a similar basic framework in common. The lack of a central authority means that Grand Lodges are held together simply by fellowship with one another. Grand Lodge jurisdictions are typically based on areas of civil government, with a separate Grand Lodge governing Masonic lodges within

2021-462: Was a British peer. Montagu was an owner of a coal mine. Montagu went on the grand tour with Pierre Sylvestre . On 17 March 1705, John was married to Lady Mary Churchill , daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough . On 23 October 1717, Montagu was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians . He was made a Knight of

2068-524: 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

2115-441: Was a notorious practical joker, his mother-in-law writing of him that "All his talents lie in things only natural in boys of fifteen years old, and he is about two and fifty; to get people into his garden and wet them with squirts, and to invite people to his country houses and put things in beds to make them itch, and twenty such pretty fancies as these." Montagu is said to have once dunked the political philosopher Montesquieu in

2162-612: 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;

2209-568: Was outgrowing London. George Payne took it upon himself to write the General Regulations of a Free Mason [ sic ], 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

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