Freemasonry evolved in England as a philosophical, fraternal brotherhood deriving its ceremonies and symbolism from the rules and craftsmanship of the ancient stonemason's guilds. From roots in a guild system dating back to Edward III (1327-1377), the operative stonemasons governed themselves and their craft by a set of regulations known as the "Old Charges," which were contained in their constitutions. The guilds, meeting in groups called Lodges, began in the late 17th century to confer honourary membership on influential members of the nobility who were referred to as "Speculative Masons."

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By the time of Queen Anne's reign (1702-1714), the number of speculative members who were interested in the philosophical aspects of craft masonry began to outnumber the operative members. The accepted or speculative members included many gentlemen, merchants, and eventually noblemen, who identified with the prevailing age of intellectual enlightenment. The métier of masonry shifted to a moralistic and philosophical experience, imparted through the rituals of the "Craft" and strengthened by fraternal bonding. Commencing in 1717, Freemasonry's organisation, regulation, and continuity was destined to be administered by a Grand Lodge, headed by a Grand Master. The founding of a Grand Lodge in England was later followed by the establishment of Grand Lodges in Ireland and Scotland.

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Between 1717 and 1725, reassessment of the old rituals resulted in a revision of the "Ancient Charges" or regulations that governed the Craft.

In 1722 the antiquated guild regulations were digested and compiled by James Anderson (1680-1739) into a new set of regulations titled The Constitutions of the Free Masons. Thereafter, several decades of internal debate over departures from the Ancient Charges culminated in 1751 with the founding of a rival Grand Lodge whose members were dedicated to preserving intact the old rituals.

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William Preston (1742-1818), England's leading Masonic ritualist and lecturer, strove to create a constructive intellectual approach, a unified, better arranged and expressed ritual that could be used in all lodges. Laurence Dermott (1720-1791), Grand Secretary of the "Ancient's" Grand Lodge (1752-177I), denounced Preston's work as introducing too many innovations and neglecting many of the ancient ways. Dermott labeled the revisionists "Moderns." Both the traditionalists, or "Ancients," and the revisionists, or "Moderns," planted lodges in America, but it was Preston's work in the field of ritual, published as Ilustrations of Masonry (London, 1772) that was generally adopted in America.

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British Freemasons who emigrated or traveled to the American colonies and the West Indies carried the Craft with them. Once sufficient numbers of brethren had assembled in a town, application could be made to a Grand Lodge in Britain for a charter to form a lodge and "work" the Craft: elect officers, conduct ritual, and initiate new members. Provincial Grand Lodges were established in the more populous colonies, under suzerainty of either the Grand Lodge of England, Ireland, or Scotland. Freemasons chart their activity in America from the duly constituted founding of First Lodge at Boston, Massachusetts in 1733.

Thereafter, Freemasonry spread throughout the western hemisphere.

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An understanding of Freemasonry is imparted to initiates through an ascending series of steps or degrees by which the candidate receives a higher condition of knowledge. The first three degrees in Freemasonry are known as "symbolic" degrees. They are lessons concealed from outsiders but unfolded to initiates by secret ceremonies in terms of symbols derived from the science, craft, and tools of ancient stonemasons who, according to biblical traditions, were employed in the building of King Solomon's Temple.

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Higher levels of instruction are known as the "temple" or Royal Arch degrees (Cryptic and Capitular), which centre around legends concerning the second, or Temple of Zerubbabel; "chivalric" degrees, which are based on historic lore surrounding the Order of Knights Templar; and "philosophic" degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which are based on moral lessons common to many philosophies.

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~ Bro. John D. Hamilton