Grand Lodge of Virginia
The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia, commonly known as "Grand Lodge of Virginia", claims to be the oldest independent masonic grand lodge in the United States with 34,000 members in over 300 lodges.[1] Both the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts dispute this claim, each claiming to be the oldest Grand Lodge in the United States. The Grand Lodge of Virginia was constituted on 30 October 1778, with headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia. The grand lodge relocated its offices to Richmond, Virginia, in 1784, where it remains to this day.[2]
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History
The plans for its creation took root in a convention held on May 6, 1777. The grand lodge was formally constituted on October 30, 1778, with its headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia by the union of nine chartered lodges: Norfolk, at Norfolk; Port Royal in Caroline County; Blandford at Petersburg; Fredericksburg at Fredericksburg; Saint Tammany at Hampton; Williamsburg at Williamsburg; Botetourt at Gloucester Courthouse; Cabin Point in Prince George County and Yorktown at Yorktown. Three other lodges in the colonial era chose not to participate.
George Washington was invited to be the first Grand Master, but was unable to accept the honor due to his military duties in the war for American independence, and because he had never been installed as master or warden of a lodge, he did not consider it masonically legal to serve as Grand Master.[3]
In 1865 the Grand Lodge of West Virginia was formed taking a number of Lodges that had been part of the Grand Lodge of Virginia but that were now part of the state of West Virginia that had seceded from Virginia at the start of the American Civil War.[4] The Grand Lodge of West Virginia was founded in Fairmont in April 1865 with William Bates as its first Grand Master.[5] Over the following period there was confusion as many West Virginia lodges still maintained loyalty to the Grand Lodge of Virginia although all the West Virginia Lodges that were originally chartered by Virginia were re-chartered by the Grand Lodge of West Virginia within the next fifty years.[6]
Grand Masters
The following men have been Grand Masters.[7]
- 1778-84: John Blair Jr.
- 1785-86: James Mercer
- 1790: Alexander Montgomery
- 1791-93: Thomas Matthews
- 1794-95: John Marshall
- 1796-97: Robert Brooke
- 1798-1800: Benjamin Day
- 1801: William Austin
- 1802-03: Alexander McRae
- 1804-05: James Byrne
- 1806-07: William W. Hening
- 1807-08: David Robertson
- 1809: John H. Foushee
- 1810-12: Solomon Jacobs
- 1813-15: Robert Brough
- 1816-17: Charles H. Graves
- 1818-19: Archibald Magill
- 1820-21: John H. Purdie
- 1822: Samuel Jones
- 1823-24: Charles Yancey
- 1825-26: Mordecai Cooke
- 1826-27: David W. Patteson
- 1828-29: Robert G. Scott
- 1830-31: George C. Dromgoole
- 1832-33: William H. Fitzwhylsonn
- 1834-35: William Mitchell Jr.
- 1836-38: Levi L. Stevenson
- 1839-40: William A. Patteson
- 1841-42: Oscar Minor Crutchfield
- 1843-44: J. Worthington Smith
- 1845-46: John Robinson Purdie
- 1847-48: Sidney S. Baxter
- 1849-50: James Points
- 1851-52: James Evans
- 1853-54: Edmund P. Hunter
- 1855-56: James A. Leitch
- 1857-58: John S. Caldwell
- 1859: Powhatan B. Stark
- 1860-61: John Robin McDaniel
- 1862-63: Lewis Burwell Williams
- 1864-65: William H. Harman
- 1866-67: Edward H. Lane
- 1868-69: William Terry
- 1870-71: Thomas Flint Owens
- 1872-73: Robert Enock Withers
- 1874: William Henry Lambert
- 1875-76: William B. Taliaferror
- 1877: Richard Parker
- 1878-79: Beverley R. Wellford
- 1880-81: Peyton Skipwith Coles
- 1882-83: Reuben Murrell Page
- 1884: Henry William Murray
- 1885-86: Francis Henry Hill
- 1887-88: William F. Drinkard
- 1889-90: Robert T. Craighill
- 1891: John Howard Wayt
- 1892-93: William Henry Pleasants
- 1894: Mann Page
- 1895-96: John P. Fitzgerald
- 1897: Alfred Ransom Courtney
- 1898-99: Richard T. W. Duke Jr.
- 1900: George W. Wright
- 1901-02: Hiram Oscar Kerns
- 1903: Edward N. Eubank
- 1904-05: Thomas Newman Davis
- 1906: Kosciusko Kemper
- 1907: Silvanus Jackson Quinn
- 1908-09: Johseph W. Eggleston
- 1910-11: William B. McChesney
- 1912-13: William Luther Andrews
- 1914: Philip Kuszner Bauman
- 1915: James Burnley Wood
- 1916: James Alston Cabell
- 1917: Henry Knox Field
- 1918: Earnest Lee Cunningham
- 1919: Solomon Cuthins
- 1920: William Wilson Galt
- 1921: John Strother Bottimore
- 1922-23: James Hubert Price
- 1924-25: Charles Hilliard Callahan
- 1926: Benjamin William Beach
- 1927: James Bowman
- 1928: William Lee Davis
- 1929: John Twohig Cochran
- 1930: Frank Talbot McFaden
- 1931: Alexander M. Showalter
- 1932: Harry Kennedy Green
- 1933: James Clark Padgett
- 1934: William Moseley Brown
- 1935: Thomas W. Hooper
- 1936: Lynwood Polk Harrell
- 1937: Charles Vernon Eddy
- 1938: James Noah Hillman
- 1939: Needham S. Turnbull Jr.
- 1940: Thomas Jay Taylor
- 1941: Clarence D. Freeman
- 1942: Robert South Barrett
- 1943: William Robert Weisiger
- 1944: John Malcolm Stewart
- 1945: Earl C. Laningham
- 1946: Thomas Penn Coleman
- 1947: Harold R. Stephenson
- 1948: Charles Edward Webber
- 1949: Alfred Douglas Smith Jr.
- 1950: Enoch Dorron Flowers
References
- "About the Grand Lodge of Virginia". Grand Lodge of Virginia. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- “Encyclopedia of Freemasonry Part 2" by Albert Gallatin Mackey, H. L. Haywood, Google Books
- Edmunds, Jeffrey Garth (2 November 2009). "250 Years of Freemasonry in Fredericksburg". Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- The Formation of the Grand Lodge Archived 2016-06-17 at the Wayback Machine from "A Century of Freemasonry", hosted by the West Virginia Grand Lodge
- ""Interesting Masonic Event to be Observed". The Gazette Times. April 10, 1915. from Google News.
- A History of Monroe County, West Virginia
- "Past Grand Masters". Grand Lodge of Virginia. 11 December 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
