Premier Grand Lodge of England
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.
Premier Grand Lodge of England
Table of lodges affiliated to the Grand Lodge, 1735.
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
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups: Regular Freemasonry, which insists that a volume of scripture be open in a working lodge, that every member professes belief in a Supreme Being, that no women be admitted, and that the discussion of religion and politics do not take place within the lodge; and Continental Freemasonry, which consists of the jurisdictions that have removed some, or all, of these restrictions.
Lodge in Palazzo Roffia, Florence, set out for French (Moderns) ritual
Print from 1870 portraying George Washington as Master of his Lodge
Freemasons Hall, London, home of the United Grand Lodge of England
Freemasons' Hall, London, c. 1809