Order of Mark Master Masons
The Order of Mark Master Masons is an appendant order of Freemasonry that exists in some Masonic jurisdictions, and confers the degrees of "Mark Mason" and "Mark Master". Purpose. Similarly to Craft Freemasonry, Mark Masonry conveys moral and ethical lessons using a ritualised allegory based around the building of King Solomon's Temple. The ceremonies of Mark Masonry require the candidate to undertake the role of a Fellowcraft, thus the degree is seen as an extension of the Fellowcraft Degree, and the philosophical lessons conveyed are appropriate to that stage in a candidate's Masonic  development. While the Fellowcraft degree teaches a Mason what the historical wages of a Fellowcraft Mason are, the Mark Master Mason degree teaches a Mason how to earn those wages, how to prove his work is his own, and what the penalty for fraud was during the building of the Temple. The legend reconciles the Anglo-American version of the Hiramic legend with the 3,300 Master Masons of Anderson's constitutions, making them Mark Masters, or overseers. The candidate is helped to choose a Mason's mark, and introduced to another extension of the Hiramic myth, relating to the manufacture , loss, and re-finding of the keystone of the Royal Arch. The link between the degrees of Master Mason, Mark Master Mason and the Royal Arch is further demonstrated in the Order of Royal and Select Masters. History. The first record of Mark Masonry in England is in 1769, when Thomas Dunckerley, as Provincial Grand Superintendent, conferred the degrees of Mark Mason and Mark Master at a Royal Arch Chapter in Portsmouth. Following the Union of the Antients and Moderns Grand Lodges and the formation of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813, the articles of union stated that  there would be three Craft degrees only, including the Royal Arch, excluding the Mark degree. For this reason, while in the rest of the world Mark Masonry became attached to Royal Arch chapters, in England it was actually proscribed from the Union until the 1850s. It was a group of Scottish masons who procured an illegal warrant from Bon Accord Chapter in Aberdeen to set up a Mark lodge in London. An attempt to add Mark Masonry to the approved craft workings was defeated in 1856, and a "Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons" was created in response. As Freemasonry  spread around the globe in the 18th and 19th centuries, Mark Masonry expanded with it, with six daughter Grand Lodges and the degree being worked under alternative administrative structures elsewhere. In England, the current Mark Grand Master is Prince Michael of Kent. Administrative structure. The administration of Mark Masonry varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, though in all jurisdictions, the candidate for advancement is nowadays required to be a Master Mason to be eligible for this degree. In Europe, Asia and Australia the Mark Degree is conferred in separately warranted Lodges under the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons. Order