Laurence Dermott

Laurence Dermott wrote and published the Book of Constitutions of this Grand Lodge for the Ancient Grand Lodge of England, which he titled the Ahiman Rezon. Above all, it was Dermott's drive and tenacity that is credited with turning an association of six London lodges in 1751 into a viable and successful Grand Lodge, with lodges throughout England and the colonies.

"Laurence Dermott, author of the Ahiman Bezan, began his schism about the year 1745, in which year the Pretender, as the legitimate King of England and Scotland was called, made an attempt to recover the throne...

...The English Masonry was Hanoverian, Hanoverian noblemen managed it,the Prince of Wales being a member,and the third Grand Master and several subsequent ones, Ministers of George the First Hence, probably, the rebellion of Dermott against the Grand Lodge of England; and his charge that it had removed the old landmarks, and his claim that he and his adherents were the Ancient Masons.

Dermott himself introduced into England, about 1750, the Royal Arch, modified from that of Enoch, with other French degrees; and the title of his book, which be never eiplained, meant, we believe, `A Brother, constituted or Accepted Prince,' to show to those who could understand, under cover of a title of a 'book, that he was a Prince-Mason [one loyal to the Prince?], as those called themselves in France who had the high degrees, and that be was a Jacobite-an adherent of the family of Stuart." - The Book Of The Word  Albert Pike pg. 28