Antient Grand Lodge of England

[3] The Antients were founded on the same religious and class tensions that underpinned Methodism's success in challenging the Church of England.

[5] From about 1721, the new Grand Lodge which had been formed in London in 1717, and would soon spread to the rest of England, Wales, and abroad, pursued a policy of self-publicity and expansion that did not always sit well with other Freemasons.

They abandoned the old methods of "drawing" lodges with chalk, (erased with a mop) in favour of tape and portable metal letters.

[3] This success must be seen as a triumph of the energy, wit, and sheer belligerence of their second Grand Secretary, Laurence Dermott.

The actual business of the lodge was conducted at an "emergency" meeting on the 14th, ensuring both dates appeared in the minutes.

The introductory history was replaced by a satirical account of Dermott's attempt to write a better one (which would trace Freemasonry to before the Creation).

The publication of the first edition, in 1756, may have been delayed until the society had found a noble sponsor to act as Grand Master.

Dermott's characterisation of the Moderns is scathing and satirical, and with each succeeding edition during his lifetime, more scorn is heaped on the society that deviated from the established landmarks of the order, and whose greatest masonic symbols were the knife and fork.

They were recognised by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, who continued to view the innovations of the Moderns with suspicion.

[12] In 1823, the mishandling of grievances of a few Lancastrian masons led to an attempt to revive the Ancients in what has come to be known as the Wigan Grand Lodge.

Although many of the rebels returned to the fold or left masonry altogether, the harshness of their treatment drew support from other lodges in the North West of England.