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Initiation of William Preston

PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:30 am
by admin
Initiation of William Preston

On this date in 1763, William Preston is believed to have been initiated at a lodge that met at the White Hart in the Strand. It was an Antients lodge. He and others later affiliated with a Moderns lodge that met at the Talbot Inn

(Source: Prestonian Lecture for 1927.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pr ... eemason%29

William Preston was a Scottish author, editor and lecturer, born in Edinburgh, on 7 August 1742. After attending school and college he became secretary to the linguist Thomas Ruddiman, who became his guardian on the death of his father. On the death of Thomas, Preston became a printer for Walter Ruddiman, Thomas' brother. In 1760 he moved to London and started a distinguished career with the printer William Strahan. He became a Freemason, instituting a system of lectures of instruction, and publishing "Illustrations of Masonry", which ran to several editions. It was under Preston that the Lodge of Antiquity seceded from the Moderns Grand Lodge to become "The Grand Lodge of All England South of the River Trent" for ten years. He died on 1 April 1818, after a long illness, and was buried in St.Paul's Cathedral.