Grand Lodge of All England
The Grand Lodge of All England Meeting since Time Immemorial in the City of York was a body of Freemasons which existed intermittently during the Eighteenth Century, mainly based in the City of York.
Having existed since at least 1705 as the Ancient Society of Freemasons in the City of York, it was in 1725, possibly in response to the expansion of the new Grand Lodge in London, that they styled themselves the Grand Lodge of All England Meeting at York.
According to the Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem, probably written in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, the birth of organised English masonry occurred when King Athelstan convened a grand council of the mason's trade.
Later manuscripts added detail, and by the time of Queen Elizabeth I the assembly was acknowledged to have occurred in York in 926.
It was convened by Athelstan's youngest son, Edwin, who appears in no other history of the period.
After an introductory prayer or blessing the Seven Liberal Arts are described, and rooted in Geometry.
Being forewarned of the destruction of the world by fire or flood, they wrote their science on two great pillars, one which would not sink, and the other fireproof.
The pillars were rediscovered after the flood, the knowledge passing from Hermes Trismegistus to Nimrod to Abraham, who carried it into Egypt where he taught it to Euclid.
The diaspora of masons after the completion of the temple led to masonry arriving in the France of Charles Martel, whence it went to England under Saint Alban.
The knowledge was lost in the wars after the death of Alban, but at Edwin's assembly at York he gave the masons their charges, and had them bring any writings they had inherited.
Manuscripts in many languages were brought, and a book made showing how the craft was founded.
The enduring myth of the "Grand Assembly" was continued in the first printed constitutions of the eighteenth century, making York the birthplace of English masonry, and allowing the old lodge at York to claim precedence over all the other English Lodges.
[2] Records of the operative lodge attached to York Minster are written on the Fabric rolls of York Minster (a record of the erection and maintenance of the fabric of the building), and extend from 1350 to 1639, when the lodge became irrelevant to the cathedral.
The oldest, lost portion of the minutes of the speculative lodge commence on 7 March 1705–06.
[3] Familial relations have been traced between the members of the Ancient Society of Freemasons in the City of York, as recorded in 1705, and the operative lodge documented there in 1663.
It possessed its own collection of the Old Charges of the craft, and initiated masons to meet under its jurisdiction in at least two other towns.
It assumed the geographical jurisdiction of the old operative Grand Lodge North of the River Trent.
[5] Deputations were sent to other towns for the purpose of making masons, Scarborough in 1705, and Bradford in 1713, when eighteen gentlemen were admitted.
He characterised Freemasonry with the attributes of "Brotherly love, relief, and truth", and claimed superiority over the Southern Grand Lodge.
Here, Edwin was not the brother or son of Athelstan, and the first lodge thereby became over three centuries older.
Drake refers to three classes of Freemasons, working masons, other trades, and Gentlemen.
Nineteen rules were enacted as Constitutions, and meetings moved from private houses to taverns.
On 31 July 1769, constitutions were granted to the Royal Oak lodge in Ripon, and on 30 October of the same year, Brothers Cateson, Revell, and Ketar were advanced to the degree of Master Mason, before being granted a constitution for the Crown in Boroughbridge.
These London Masons became, for ten years, The Grand Lodge of All England South of the River Trent.
[3] After 1761, there was worship at the church in Coney Street, followed by a procession to York's Guildhall for a banquet, attended by daughter lodges, ladies, and non-masons.
[4] The operative masons having formed their own company in 1671, the Ancient Society used their copies of the Old Charges as warrants.
All the time, the lectures and catechisms attached to the degrees increased in complexity, a special award being presented to the past master who gave the best rendition.
Under the Grand Lodge of All England South of the River Trent Royal Arch Chapters Knights Templar Encampments Note – The stewardship of the presidents and masters at York dates from 27 December (the feast of St. John the Evangelist) in the year shown.
B. Bradley, Junior Warden of the Lodge of Antiquity, London, and dated, York, 29 August 1778.
