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1000 BCE
Hiram Abif born
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967 BCE
Building King Solomon's Temple begins
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960 BCE
King Solomon's Temple completed
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587 BCE
King Solomon's Temple
Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II -
516 BCE
Second Temple built
516 BCE to 70 CE -
70 BCE
Third Temple proposed
never built -
1080
German Stienmetzen
Early German stonemasons with rules, ceremonies, and titles -
1248
Statutes of Bologna
(an "Old Charges" document) Statutes and Regulations of the Society of Masters of the Wall and the Frame – or if you prefer: Union, Association, League, Brotherhood or Company of Stone Masons and Carpenters. -
1268
The Book of Trades
(an "Old Charges" document) Having been appointed Provost of Paris, in 1261 with major responsibilities for justice, police and administration of the city, Étienne Boileau (c.1200-c.1270) soon began to codify the regulations, customs and practices of the different corporations of craftmen and workers having their trade in the capital of the French kingdom. -
1326
The Avignon Decree
(an "Old Charges" document) by a Council held in Avignon, at the request of John XXII (1244-1334), a native of Cahors (France) (1). The importance of this document is that it places an earlier date on the formal policy of the Roman Catholic Church related to Masons’ membership of guilds and associations. -
1356
The London Regulations for Masons
(an "Old Charges" document) In 1356, to end a violent conflict between mason hewers (1) and mason layers (or setters) (2), the London authorities, acting on behalf of the King of England, Edward III (1312-1377), drew up special regulations to organize the craft of stone construction. Those corporate rules were strengthened during the following century, with the creation of a Company of Masons of London in 1481. -
1370
The York Ordinances
(an "Old Charges" document) -
1390
Regius Poem
(an "Old Charges" document) also called the Halliwell Manuscript -
1425
The Cooke Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) Second oldest document known to exist, related to Masonry. -
1459
The Regensburg Statutes
(an "Old Charges" document) The Statutes of the Stonecutters and Masons’ Association, commonly called the Statutes of Regensburg, were adopted on April 25, 1459, at a general meeting of Stone Masons and Master Builders of Germany (1) held in the city of Regensburg. -
1460
Tracing House
References made to a tracing house at Westminster Abbey -
1463
Worhipful Company of Masons
erected their first Hall, in the City of London -
1535
The William Watson Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
1535
The Cologne Charter
(an "Old Charges" document) the Elected Masters of the Brotherhood dedicated to St. John, Members of Freemasonry, allegedly gathered in the city of Cologne, in the Rhineland, to draft a new Charter, which was more concerned with Accepted Masonry than with the manual practice of the Craft. -
Sep 29, 1563
The Strasbourg Ordinances
(an "Old Charges" document) -
St. Mary Lodge of Dundee
is mentioned in an indenture bearing this date -
The Grand Lodge No.1 Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The First William Schaw Statutes
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Second William Schaw Statutes
(an "Old Charges" document) -
Lodge Mother Kilwinning #0, Scotland
Possibly oldest lodge in the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodge_Mother_Kilwinning -
Lodge of Edinburgh #1 - oldest known recorded lodge
Oldest Masonic Lodge Minutes - July 31, 1599: Lodge of Edinburgh No. 1 has records to prove its long time existence as the Oldest Masonic Lodge, and the first historical reference of a non-operative or speculative freemason being initiated as a member (1634)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodge_of_Edinburgh_(Mary%27s_Chapel)_No._1 -
Non-operative Masons
First record of the admission of a non-operative Mason in a Lodge of Scotland -
The York No.1 Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) Having been written nearly twenty years after the Grand Lodge No. 1 Manuscript (1583), the The York No. 1 Manuscript shows many similarities with it, and only few differences with the Watson Manuscript written some 65 years earlier. -
The First Sinclair Charter
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Inigo Jones Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
Acception Masons
London Masons Account Book describes some Masonic members as "Acceptions" -
The Second Sinclair Charter
(an "Old Charges" document) -
Earliest recorded initiation
Sir Robert Moray initiated by Scotch masonic regiment at Newcastle-on-Tyne -
Elias Ashmole's Journal
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Sloane No.3848 Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
Harleian Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
Scotland - Lodge of Aberdeen #1
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Stanley Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Edinburgh Register House Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) This document is in fact titled: Some Questions that Masons use to put to these who profess to have the Mason Word before they will acknowledge them. -
The Chetwode Crawley Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Sloane No.3329 Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) It contains a questions and answers Catechism, bu includes, in detail, the words and signs of Freemasons. But this is not the only peculiarity of the Sloane Manuscript, which seems to make a significant distinction between the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master. This suggests that previous to the year 1700, the approximate date estimated for the document, some English lodges were already working with all three degrees: EA, FC, MM. -
The Dumfries No.4 Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Trinity College Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
The Kevan Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) -
First Grand Lodge formed
Four London Lodges came together at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern in St Paul’s Churchyard, declared themselves a "Grand Lodge of London & Westminster" and elected Anthony Sayer as their Grand Master.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Grand_Lodge_of_England -
On St John the Baptist's Day
(Old Charge) -
First Grand Master
Rev. John T Desaguliers elected GM of the Mother GL of England -
GL of England regulations
GL adopted the regulation that all regular lodges secure a Charter -
The Old Constitutions
The Old Constitutions of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons -
James Anderson's Constitutions Published
(an "Old Charges" document). James Anderson was a Master of a
Masonic lodge and a Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge. He was commissioned to write this history of the Free-Masons by the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster in September of 1721, and it was published in 1723. Full Version:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=libraryscience Sources:
https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/freemasonry/freemasonry-in-colonial-america/ -
The Grand Mystery
(Document) The Grand Mystery of Free-Masons Discover’d -
Grand Lodge of Ireland formed
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The Graham Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) consists of a long list of Questions and Answers. -
The Wilkinson Manuscript
(an "Old Charges" document) a long Catechism made of some 74 questions and answers -
Masonry Dissected
(an "Old Charges" document) The book appeared in London in 1730 at a price of sixpence, under the title: Masonry Dissected: A Universal and Genuine Description, of all its Branches from the original to this present time. Its author was a certain Samuel Prichard, “Late Member of a Constituted Lodge”. -
Masonry in America
The GL of England issues a deputation to Daniel Coxe to act as "Provincial GM of the Provinces of new York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. -
Masonic Lodge in Paris formed
-
Freemasonry appears in Italy
Persecution follows, in Florence -
First Grand Lodge in America
Henry Price, the Provincial Grand Master over all of North America for the Grand Lodge of England, granted a charter to a group of Boston Freemasons. This lodge was later named St. John's Lodge and was the first duly constituted lodge in America. -
First Masonic Temple in America
erected in Philadelphia, PA -
Benjamin Franklin Republishes The Constitution of Free-Masons
The first Masonic book published in the colonies was Benjamin Franklin's reprint of Anderson's constitution in 1733. And Franklin sent copies of that book to Boston where his family is from and also down to the Carolinas for sale. Full Version:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=libraryscience Sources:
https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/freemasonry/freemasonry-in-colonial-america/ -
First Lodge meeting in Germany
-
Pope Clement
issues In Eminenti Apostolatus, condemning Freemasonry and forbidding Catholics from joining. -
Pope Benedict XIV
issues a Bull Providas, condemning Freemasonry on the grounds of its alleged naturalism, demand for oaths, secrecy, religious indifferentism, and possible threat to the Church and State. It confirmed the previous constitution In Eminenti Apostolatus. It specifically forbid Roman Catholics from seeking membership in any Masonic group. -
Antient Grand Lodge in England formed
was formed, as a schism from the current Free and Accepted Grand Lodge. -
Grand Inquisitors
Franciscan Father José Torrubia give a list of 97 Lodges to the Inquisition -
George Washington receives Entered Apprentice degree
Washington was 20 years old when he received the first degree of Entered Apprentice on November 4, 1752 in the Lodge at Fredericksburg. He paid the lodge two pounds and three shillings to join. Ten days after turning 21, on March 3, 1753, he was passed to the second degree of Fellowcraft. On August 4, 1753, he was raised to the third degree of Master Mason. The lodge’s surviving minute book records Washington attending only two more meetings: September 1, 1753, and January 4, 1755. -
Masonic Order of Knight Templar
Earliest known record of conferring Knight Templar, at St. Andrews Royal Arch Chapter, Boston, MA -
Masonic ceremonial laying of the United States Capitol cornerstone
On September 18, 1793, George Washington acting as grand master pro tem, he presided at the Masonic ceremonial laying of the United States Capitol cornerstone Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/freemasonry/ -
George Washington's Funeral
At Washington’s 1799 funeral, brothers of Alexandria Lodge performed Masonic rites. After Martha Washington’s death the lodge acquired many valuable items from the estate, including a Masonic apron sent from France in 1793. With these items and many curiosities, the lodge opened a museum in 1812. Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/freemasonry/
