The details of early Freemasonry in Surrey are scanty. However, it is known that the first recorded Lodge Meeting in Surrey was in 1723, at the Kings Arms in Wandsworth (which in those days would have been in Surrey) while the first Provincial Grand Master for Surrey, a Thomas Parker, was installed in 1772 by one Thomas Dunckerley.

However, whilst Parker was officially appointed as Provincial Grand Master in 1772, and served as such for some 20 years, Provincial Grand Lodges were not formally constituted until after 1813 and, although both Parker and his successor, a James Meyrick (1795-1818), may well have held unofficial meetings of a Provincial Grand Lodge, the first official Provincial Grand Lodge for Surrey was constituted in 1837 under Lord Monson (Frederick John, 5th Baron Monson), Surrey’s third Provincial Grand Master (from 1836-1841).

Nevertheless, to return to the beginning, in 1772, and Parker’s installation by Thomas Dunckerley – the latter is a very famous name in the annals of Freemasonry, and the circumstances which led to that fame are of interest:-.

Quoting from ‘The History of Freemasonry in the Province of Surrey’, researched and written by H.B. Bailey and the Rev. N. Barker Cryer and published in 1970:-

“Thomas Dunckerley was born in 1724 and died in 1795 and into those seventy-one years he packed a lifetime of earnest endeavour and indefatigable industry. He claimed to be the natural son of the Prince of Wales, who became George II …… he was sent to sea while still no more than 10 years old, and did not learn of his alleged royal paternity until middle age when he was on leave from his ship to attend his mother’s funeral …. He had to return to his ship before he could find an opportunity to approach the King and, when he again returned to England, George II was dead. Fortunately for him, his friends at Court eventually succeeded in convincing George III that Dunckerley was indeed the progeny of his Grandfather George II, whereupon {circumstances so developed as to give him} the free time to devote himself to his great interest, Freemasonry.” Dunckerley was, indeed, a prolific Ambassador for the Fraternity, holding high Masonic Office in Bristol, Dorset, Essex, Gloucester, Hereford, Isle of Wight, Kent, Nottingham, Somerset, Southampton, Suffolk, Sussex, and Warwickshire, as well as Surrey – and his only means of transport was a horse!

Bailey and Barker Cryer conclude that “there can never be another quite like Thomas Dunckerley”, and Surrey can be proud that he found time to Install Thomas Parker as its first Provincial Grand Master.

Quoting further from Bailey and Barker Cryer’s History:- Thomas Parker was born in 1725, and was Provincial Grand Master from 1772 until his death in 1792. He was a Solicitor and Parliamentary Agent to Lord Spencer. His obituary notice in the Gentlemen’s Magazine dated 24th February, 1792, read as follows:-

“Mr Parker was a solicitor of considerable eminence. He bought the Manor of Puttenham in Surrey and, of an old farmhouse, made a handsome one, much enlarged, laid out and planted the grounds with taste, but later sold this property. He kept the Manor however and fitted up a very small house in the neighbourhood, on a farm called Hampton in Elstead, which is in the Bishop of Winchester’s Manor of Farnham. He was once a Parliamentary Candidate to represent the Borough of Haslemere and, on another occasion, opposed Sir Fletcher Norton at Guildford but failed at both attempts. He left two sons, one of whom was formerly in the Guards.”

Parker also had a daughter, who died in 1770 and was buried at Puttenham where (at an unknown date) his wife too was buried. Parker later sold his estate at Puttenham, and purchased an estate at Roehampton which had previously belonged to the Earl of Portland; he also had an address – probably an office – in Great George Street, Westminster. Following his death, he was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence Church in the village of Seale, near Elstead and Farnham.

From those early beginnings - its first Lodge meeting in 1723, the appointment of its first Provincial Grand Master in 1772, and the formation of its first Provincial Grand Lodge in 1837 - the Province of Surrey now comprises more than 300 individual Masonic Lodges, and we now have our 18th Provincial Grand Master, in the person of Eric Stuart-Bamford, whose Welcome you receive on the Home Page of this website.

However, in moving so swiftly from 1723 to 2010, and having made but passing reference to the number of Lodges in the Province, it would be remiss to overlook one specific, and very significant piece of Surrey Masonic History in just one of those Lodges. The Lodge of Friendship and Harmony, founded in 1876 and which now meets at Godalming, has the unique distinction of having had a reigning Monarch (and Past Grand Master) as one of its members; HRH The Prince of Wales (latterly the Duke of Windsor), who was Provincial Grand Master of Surrey from 1924-1936, became a member of that Lodge in 1924, was Installed as its Master in 1935, and succeeded to the Throne – as King Edward VIII - while he was still Master of the Lodge, prior to his abdication in 1936.

Whilst not every Lodge in Surrey can boast such an illustrious forbear, each and every Surrey Lodge does have its own, unique and very personal history – which continues to be written, year on year, by the addition of new Members.