Delphian Lodge No. 44

Variously known as Freemasonry, Masonry or The Craft, the beginnings of our fraternity are lost to history. Although Masonry is believed to be the oldest surviving fraternal organization in the world, the exact date of its founding is uncertain. Freemasonry can, however, be easily traced to sixteenth century Scotland although the first Masonic governing body was not founded until 1717 in London. By 1723, the Constitutions of the Freemasons were assembled and published and although that document explicitly refers to an alleged meeting of masons in England assembled by Prince Edwin, the son of the tenth-century Saxon king Athelstan, there is no supporting evidence to this claim. Despite this, theories that the fraternity is much older than the Age of Enlightenment exist, and most historians accept that the Craft is descended from the medieval stonemason’s guilds.