Premier Grand Lodge of England - Ancients and Moderns

Ancients and Moderns

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.

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". Dermott labelled them the "Moderns", and 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.

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.

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.

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 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.