page_title: Odd Fellows
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Odd Fellows / History
caption_attribution_description: English: George IV of the United Kingdom (1762-1830, r. 1820-1830)
context_page_description: Odd Fellows is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. The first known lodge was called Loyal Aristarcus Lodge No. 9, suggesting there were earlier ones in the 18th century. Notwithstanding, convivial meetings were held "in much revelry and, often as not, the calling of the Watch to restore order." Names of several British pubs today suggest past Odd Fellows affiliations. In the mid-18th century, following the Jacobite risings, the fraternity split into the rivaling Order of Patriotic Oddfellows in southern England, favouring William III of England, and the Ancient Order of Oddfellows in northern England and Scotland, favouring the House of Stuart.
  Odd Fellows from that time include John Wilkes and Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet of Thornton, advocating civil liberties and reliefs, including Catholic emancipation. Political repressions such as the Unlawful Oaths Act and the Unlawful Societies Act, resulted in neutral amalgamation of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows in 1798. Since then the fraternity has remained religiously and politically independent.
caption: King George IV of the United Kingdom (1762–1830), admitted in 1780, was the first documented of many odd fellows to also adhere to freemasonry; both societies remained mutually independent.
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