# Grand Lodge of Virginia

The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of the Commonwealth of Virginia, commonly known as "Grand Lodge of Virginia", is the oldest, continuous, independent masonic grand lodge in the United States with 25,000 members in over 276 lodges. Both the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts dispute this claim, each claiming to be the oldest Grand Lodge in the United States. A Pennsylvania Grand Lodge was probably working as early as 1727, or slightly before the one that was next formed in Massachusetts, circa-1730. However, both of those older grand lodges did not last, and both bodies had to be re-formed later in the eighteenth-century. The Grand Lodge of Virginia was constituted on 30 October 1778, with its first headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia. The grand lodge relocated its offices to Richmond, Virginia, in 1784, where it remains to this day.

## History

The plans for its creation took root in a convention held on May 6, 1777. The grand lodge was formally constituted on October 30, 1778, with its first headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia by the union of eight chartered lodges: Norfolk, at Norfolk; Port Royal in Caroline County; Blandford at Petersburg; Fredericksburg at Fredericksburg; Saint Tammany at Hampton; Williamsburg at Williamsburg; Botetourt at Gloucester Courthouse; Cabin Point in Prince George County. Four other Virginia lodges that were also in existence during the colonial era, but chose not to participate at all in this Virginia formative effort, were: York at Yorktown; Alexandria at Alexandria; Winchester Hiram at Winchester; and Hobbes Hole at Tappahannock. (NOTE: There also was at least one French-speaking lodge that was variously working in the Norfolk-Portsmouth area, but it was not recognized by any of the other Virginia lodges that had all been originally chartered via the English (Premier), Scottish, or Pennsylvania Grand Lodges.)
George Washington was invited to be the first Grand Master, but was unable to accept the honor due to his military duties in the war for American independence, and because he had never been installed as the Master or Warden of a lodge, he did not consider it masonically legal to serve as Grand Master.
In 1865 the Grand Lodge of West Virginia was formed taking a number of Lodges that had been part of the Grand Lodge of Virginia but that were now part of the state of West Virginia that had seceded from Virginia in 1863, during the middle of the American Civil War. The Grand Lodge of West Virginia was founded in Fairmont in April 1865 with William Bates as its first Grand Master. Over the following period there was confusion as many West Virginia lodges still maintained loyalty to the Grand Lodge of Virginia although all the West Virginia Lodges that were originally chartered by Virginia were re-chartered by the Grand Lodge of West Virginia within the next fifty years. While all of those lodges eventually received West Virginia charters, they petitioned the Grand Lodge of Virginia to keep their VA charters, which was eventually granted.

## Grand Masters

The following men have been Grand Masters.
* 1778-84: John Blair, Jr.
* 1785-86: James Mercer
* 1787-88: Edmund Randolph
* 1790: Alexander Montgomery
* 1791-93: Thomas Matthews
* 1794-95: John Marshall
* 1796-97: Robert Brooke
* 1798-1800: Benjamin Day
* 1801: William Austin
* 1802-03: Alexander McRae
* 1804-05: James Byrne
* 1806-07: William Waller Hening
* 1807-08: David Robertson
* 1809: John H. Foushee
* 1810-12: Solomon Jacobs
* 1813-15: Robert Brough
* 1816-17: Charles H. Graves
* 1818-19: Archibald Magill
* 1820-21: John H. Purdie
* 1822: Samuel Jones
* 1823-24: Charles Yancey
* 1825-26: Mordecai Cooke
* 1826-27: David W. Patteson
* 1828-29: Robert G. Scott
* 1830-31: George C. Dromgoole
* 1832-33: William H. Fitzwhylsonn
* 1834-35: William Mitchell, Jr.
* 1836-38: Levi L. Stevenson
* 1839-40: William A. Patteson
* 1841-42: Oscar Minor Crutchfield
* 1843-44: J. Worthington Smith
* 1845-46: John Robinson Purdie
* 1847-48: Sidney S. Baxter
* 1849-50: James Points
* 1851-52: James Evans
* 1853-54: Edmund P. Hunter
* 1855-56: James A. Leitch
* 1857-58: John S. Caldwell
* 1859: Powhatan B. Stark
* 1860-61: John Robin McDaniel
* 1862-63: Lewis Burwell Williams
* 1864-65: William H. Harman
* 1866-67: Edward H. Lane
* 1868-69: William Terry
* 1870-71: Thomas Flint Owens
* 1872-73: Robert Enock Withers
* 1874: William Henry Lambert
* 1875-76: William B. Taliaferro
* 1877: Richard Parker
* 1878-79: Beverley R. Wellford
* 1880-81: Peyton Skipwith Coles
* 1882-83: Reuben Murrell Page
* 1884: Henry William Murray
* 1885-86: Francis Henry Hill
* 1887-88: William F. Drinkard
* 1889-90: Robert T. Craighill
* 1891: John Howard Wayt
* 1892-93: William Henry Pleasants
* 1894: Mann Page
* 1895-96: John P. Fitzgerald
* 1897: Alfred Ransom Courtney
* 1898-99: Richard T. W. Duke, Jr.
* 1900: George W. Wright
* 1901-02: Hiram Oscar Kerns
* 1903: Edward N. Eubank
* 1904-05: Thomas Newman Davis
* 1906: Kosciusko Kemper
* 1907: Silvanus Jackson Quinn
* 1908-09: Joseph W. Eggleston
* 1910-11: William B. McChesney
* 1912-13: William Luther Andrews
* 1914: Philip Kuszner Bauman
* 1915: James Burnley Wood
* 1916: James Alston Cabell
* 1917: Henry Knox Field
* 1918: Earnest Lee Cunningham
* 1919: Solomon Cuthins
* 1920: William Wilson Galt
* 1921: John Strother Bottimore
* 1922-23: James Hubert Price
* 1924-25: Charles Hilliard Callahan
* 1926: Benjamin William Beach
* 1927: James Bowman
* 1928: William Lee Davis
* 1929: John Twohig Cochran
* 1930: Frank Talbot McFaden
* 1931: Alexander M. Showalter
* 1932: Harry Kennedy Green
* 1933: James Clark Padgett
* 1934: William Moseley Brown
* 1935: Thomas W. Hooper
* 1936: Lynwood Polk Harrell
* 1937: Charles Vernon Eddy
* 1938: James Noah Hillman
* 1939: Needham S. Turnbull, Jr.
* 1940: Thomas Jay Traylor
* 1941: Clarence D. Freeman
* 1942: Robert South Barrett
* 1943: William Robert Weisiger
* 1944: John Malcolm Stewart
* 1945: Earl C. Laningham
* 1946: Thomas Penn Coleman
* 1947: Harold R. Stephenson
* 1948: Charles Edward Webber
* 1949: Alfred Douglas Smith, Jr.
* 1950: Enoch Dorron Flowers
* 1951: Rudolph R. Cooke
* 1952: Charles M. Lankford, Jr.
* 1953: Orvin McLean Miles
* 1954: Hugh M. Reid
* 1955: William J. McMahon
* 1956: Willis Vernon Fentress
* 1957: Archer Bailey Gay
* 1958: Earl Stanley Wallace
* 1959: Samuel Dexter Forbes
* 1960: Charles Malone Flintoff
* 1961: Edmund Carroll Glover, Jr.
* 1962: Edward Herman Cann
* 1963: John Powers Stokes
* 1964: Millard Hale Robbins
* 1965: Walter Albert Porter
* 1966: George Eldridge Kidd
* 1967: Harry Bruce Green
* 1968: Jesse Albert White
* 1969: Julian Cooke Roden
* 1970: William Thomas Watkins
* 1971: Charles Franklin Shuler
* 1972: Wilmer Thomas Trevillian
* 1973: William Conway Vaughan
* 1974: Stewart Wilson Miner
* 1975: Seymour Jonas Levy
* 1976: Lewis Douglas Delano
* 1977: John Wynn Laningham
* 1978: Robert Rhandle Kennedy, Jr.
* 1979: Matthew Lyle Lacy, II
* 1980: Charles Edward Wallace
* 1981: Spencer McMath Rogers
* 1982: Lloyd Ulrich Jefferson
* 1983: William Munford Johnson
* 1984: Ralph Julian Wimmer
* 1985: John Boyd Obenchain
* 1986: Oscar Wood Tate
* 1987: Donald Maynard Robey
* 1988: Glover Hunter Jones, Jr.
* 1989: Cabell Flournoy Cobbs
* 1990: George William Farley
* 1991: William Franklin Perdue
* 1992: John Robert Dean
* 1993-94: Werner Herman Morlock
* 1995: Thomas Frederick May
* 1996: James Bernard Wilkinson
* 1997: Alan Wayne Adkins
* 1998: Albert Hugh Tignor, Jr.
* 1999: George Harry Chapin
* 2000: William Lee Holliday
* 2001: James Dean Cole
* 2002: Clifford Alan Parker
* 2003: Frederick Garrison Martin, III
* 2004: James Milton Scearce, Jr.
* 2005: John Randall Quinley
* 2006: Glover Hunter Jones, III
* 2007: George Bernard Dungan, Jr.
* 2008: Edmund Cohen
* 2009: Jeffery Eugene Hodges
* 2010: William Earle Rorer, Jr.
* 2011: John Mason Chambliss, Jr.
* 2012: William Talbott Ellison, Jr.
* 2013: Louis Kerford Campbell
* 2014: Wayne Sawyer Flora
* 2015: Reese Edward Carroll, Jr.
* 2016: James Edward Litten
* 2017: Vernon Stewart Cook
* 2018: Gary Wallace Taylor
* 2019: William Edward Hershey, Jr.
* 2020-2021: Douglas Vernon Jones
* 2022: James Winfield Golladay, Jr.
* 2023: Donald Ellis Strehle
* 2024: Jack Kale Lewis