United Grand Lodge of England

Redacción Cámara de Maestro · 22 July 2026

United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the primary governing body of Freemasonry in England, Wales, and in certain jurisdictions outside thereof, typically countries of the British Commonwealth or those formerly part of the British Empire, including the United States. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to some 8,000 lodges, according to data from its official website, it is considered the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in the world, alongside the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The UGLE regards itself as a regular Masonic institution, a point on which other currents of Freemasonry disagree, and constitutes the benchmark for the Masonic tradition that requires belief in God or a Supreme Being, the oath upon a Book of Sacred Law, and does not admit women.

History

Background and the First Grand Lodge (1717)

On 24 June 1717, St. John’s Day, three lodges from London and one from Westminster held a joint dinner at the Goose and Gridiron tavern, located in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. At that meeting, they elected Anthony Sayer as Grand Master and styled themselves the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. The Corporation of the City of London has erected a Blue Plaque near the site to commemorate the event.

According to historian Marsha Keith Schuchard, the Whig administration organized the Grand Lodge as a loyal counterbalance to the Hanoverians against the Jacobite rising of 1715, due to concern over prior Jacobite influence in the lodges. The predominant Freemasonry in Hanoverian England was closely linked to Whiggism.

The first Grand Masters were: Anthony Sayer (1717), described as a ‘Gentleman’, a man of independent means who later fell into misfortune and received aid from the Grand Lodge’s charity fund; George Payne (1718), a successful civil servant; John Theophilus Desaguliers (1719), a scientist and clergyman; and the Duke of Montagu (1721), the first aristocratic Grand Master.

In 1723, Anderson’s Constitutions were published, the work of James Anderson under the authority of the Grand Lodge. This document included rules of organization, principles, and a history of the craft which the source itself describes as ‘fantastical’.

The Grand Lodge of the Ancients (1751)

On 17 July 1751, representatives of five lodges met at the Turk’s Head tavern in Greek Street, Soho, London, and formed a rival Grand Lodge: ‘The Grand Lodge of England According to the Old Institutions’. Its members styled themselves ‘Ancients’ and called those of the First Grand Lodge ‘Moderns’.

The Ancients claimed that the Grand Lodge of London had deviated from the ancient landmarks of Masonry, whereas they worked according to the rules given by Prince Edward at York in 926 AD – a claim presented in the sources as an argument of the Ancients themselves, not as a verified historical fact. The Constitution of the Second Grand Lodge, compiled by its Grand Secretary Laurence Dermott, was called the Ahiman Rezon, a Hebrew name meaning ‘A Help to a Brother’.

The historiographical interpretation of Henry Sadler, set forth in his book Masonic Facts and Fictions (1887), contradicts Dermott’s account. Sadler argues that the ‘Ancients’ were primarily Irish immigrants in London who, being received with hostility by English lodges, decided to form their own organization. The ritual differences would not stem from innovations by the Grand Lodge of London, but from the different adoption of the Scottish ritual heritage in Ireland and England. The ritual divergences between ‘Moderns’ and ‘Ancients’ affected particulars regarding the layout of the lodge and the ritual, but in essentials, the rites and ceremonies were common.

The Union and the creation of the UGLE (1813)

In 1809, the Moderns appointed a ‘Lodge of Promulgation’ to return their ritual to regularity with Scotland, Ireland, and especially the Ancients. In 1811, both Grand Lodges appointed commissioners and negotiated articles of union.

On 27 December 1813, at Freemasons’ Hall, London, the United Grand Lodge of England was constituted. The protagonists of the union were the Duke of Sussex, son of King George III, as Grand Master of the Moderns (from January 1813), and the Duke of Kent, his brother, as Grand Master of the Ancients (from December 1813). The Duke of Sussex was the first Grand Master of the UGLE. A Lodge of Reconciliation was also formed to reconcile the rituals of the two previous Grand Lodges.

The Duke of Sussex held the theory that Freemasonry was pre-Christian and could serve as a universal religion, but his autocratic treatment provoked an open rebellion and the creation of a new ‘Grand Lodge of Wigan’ in the Northwest of England.

Contemporary era

The current Grand Master of the UGLE is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. In the mid-1990s, in response to conspiracy theories and hostile views disseminated in works by Stephen Knight and Martin Short, the UGLE began to emphasize a new ‘openness’ towards the public and the media.

Regularity and recognition

It is accepted by the generality of Masonic Obediences that regularity of origin emanates from the primitive Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Regular Obediences are said to have received their charter from this Grand Lodge or through other intermediate ones, although this claim lacks an explicit documentary source.

The UGLE governs the majority of Freemasons in England, Wales, and some countries of the British Commonwealth. Its doctrinal position, which requires belief in a Supreme Being and the oath upon a Book of Sacred Law, as well as its exclusion of women, places it as a reference point for regular Freemasonry, although other Masonic currents disagree with this designation.

Bibliography

Spanish Wikipedia, ‘Gran Logia Unida de Inglaterra’
English Wikipedia, ‘United Grand Lodge of England’

Sources