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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with 34,000 members in over 300 lodges. Both the

Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, officially The Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdictions Thereunto Belonging, is the premier masonic organizati ...

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

headquarter Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

s in

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...

. The grand lodge relocated its offices to

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, in 1784, where it remains to this day.

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

by the union of nine chartered lodges: Norfolk, at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

; Port Royal in Caroline County; Blandford at

Petersburg Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to: Places Australia *Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia Canada * Petersburg, Ontario Russia *Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg United States *Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...

; Fredericksburg at Fredericksburg; Saint Tammany at Hampton; Williamsburg at

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

; Botetourt at Gloucester Courthouse; Cabin Point in

Prince George County Prince George County is a county (United States), county located in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 43,010. Its county seat is Prince George, Virginia ...

and Yorktown at Yorktown. Three other lodges in the colonial era chose not to participate.

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

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. In 1865 the

Grand Lodge of West Virginia The Grand Lodge of West Virginia is a freemason organization in West Virginia. It is the only Grand Lodge recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and hence " regular" in the state. (The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of West Virginia is n ...

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 West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

that had seceded from Virginia at the start of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. The Grand Lodge of West Virginia was founded in Fairmont in April 1865 with William Bates as its first Grand Master. 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.

Grand Masters

The following men have been Grand Masters. John Marshall by Henry Inman, 1832

*1778-84:

John Blair Jr. John Blair Jr. (April 17, 1732 – August 31, 1800) was an American Founding Father, who signed the United States Constitution as a delegate from Virginia and was appointed an Associate Justice on the first U.S. Supreme Court by George Washingt ...

*1785-86: James Mercer *1790: Alexander Montgomery *1791-93: Thomas Matthews *1794-95:

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

*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

External links

The Grand Lodge of Virginia Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons - Official Homepage
{{Freemasonry in the Americas Virginia Freemasonry in the United States Organizations based in Virginia 1778 establishments in Virginia

History

Grand Masters

See also

References

External links