Laurence Dermott - Enigma and trailblazer - A Biography

The Metropolitan Grand Chapter's Rob Soames looks to Laurance Dermott - Enigma and Trailblazer for clarity on Freemasonry's charitable origins. Dermott was Grand Secretary of the Antients' Grand Lodge which was set up in 1751 because many Freemasons, especially London Irish ones, were dissatisfied with the 1717 Moderns' Grand Lodge. The two English Grand Lodges remained in opposition until 1813, when the Royal Dukes of Kent and Sussex, each a Grand Master, brought them together as the United Grand Lodge of England. Had Dermott been less influential in the 1750s, some of us now wonder if Freemasonry as we know it would still exist.