Ancient Order of Druids

The March 1909 edition of The Druid, the magazine published by the Ancient Order of Druids.

The success of the group that met at the King’s Arms, which came to be called Lodge No. 1, spawned the creation of a number of other lodges of the Order being founded elsewhere by new initiates, with Lodge No. 2 being inaugurated on 21 August 1783 and meeting at Rose Tavern, along the Ratcliffe Highway, Wapping. Lodge No. 3 was soon after opened in Westminster, and according to a rumour within the Order, the politician Charles James Fox was initiated into the Order through this lodge by Hurle himself, possibly in an attempt to gain wider popularity amongst the voters in the borough.[4]

By 1785, the AOD had six lodges in London, with a further one located in Ipswich, and by 1791 there was a string of them across southern England. However, in 1794, with the French revolution causing panic amongst many in the British government, who feared a revolutionary movement at home, great suspicion was cast upon secretive societies, and due to this a number of the lodges shut down, including that in Westminster. Nonetheless, by the start of the nineteenth century, twenty-two lodges remained open. By 1831 this had risen to 193 lodges, and the Order’s membership itself had risen to over 200,000.[5]

However, discontent was rising in the Order. Ever since its inception, its members had come from a variety of different social backgrounds, and many of the poorer members, particularly in the newly-industrial towns in the English Midlands, wanted it to act more like the benefit clubs and friendly societies such as the Odd Fellows (1730), the Shepherds Friendly Society (1826), the Foresters Friendly Society (1834), which were then rising in popularity. These benefit clubs collected membership fees into a central fund that they used to care for members who were too ill to work, or unable to pay for their funerals. In particular, these dissenting voices wanted to cease sending a percentage of their funds to the Grand Lodge (formerly Lodge No. 1), and to introduce more democratic reforms within the movement, so that the Archdruids of each lodge had a larger say over the movement. In the first years of the 1830s, a group of lodges decided to found an elected United Provisional Committee, but in retaliation the Grand Lodge and its allies expelled them from the Order, further galvanising the organisation into two camps. In 1833, about half of the AOD, numbering over a hundred lodges, split from the Grand Lodge in protest and formed the United Ancient Order of Druids.[6] This event has subsequently become known as "the Great Secession" amongst members of the Order.

Plaque celebrating the foundation of the order in London.

After World War I, the relations between the AOD and the UAOD and the OD (scission of the UAOD) abated, and each year a joint congress was organized in Great-Britain. During World War II, much of the Order's archives has been destroyed during The Blitz. After World War II, a welfare state was established in the United Kingdom, the consequences were that fraternal societies were no longer attractive and they faded. If the UAOD and the OD have completely disappeared in the 1990', the Ancient Order of Druids has remained. Today, as a philanthropic and charitable society, the Ancient Order of Druids still remains the world oldest and regular druidic's order. It is the earliest known English group to be founded based upon the iconography of the ancient druids, who were priest-like figures in Iron Age Celtic paganism. As such, the Order was an early influence upon the development of the Neo-druidic movement,[7] however it differs from most contemporary Neo-druidic groups in that it does not hold to a Neopagan religion, and is "not a religious organisation – in fact any discussion on religion or politics is forbidden within the lodge rooms". Instead, its members are expected "to preserve and practise the main principles attributed to the early Druids, particularly those of justice, benevolence and friendship."