On 22 December 1823 at the Shakespeare Tavern in Williamson Square, Liverpool, a gathering of masonic rebels took place. The door to the lodge room was closed and guarded by the Grand Tyler, the masons present settled and watched as Brother Michael Alexander Gage took the chair. The lodge was opened in the third degree, and the minutes of the previous meeting were read. That last meeting on 21 July had been adjourned, but now their business could be concluded, and it was hoped this meeting would change English Freemasonry forever.
    The reason for re-convening the adjourned meeting was to allow the rebels to install the first Grand Master and Officers of their new Grand Lodge. The Grand Master and his Officers were elected, and then the newly written ‘Magna Charta of Masonic Freedom’ was read aloud to an eager audience. The document resounded to the theme of a new dawn, free from the despotic power of the United Grand Lodge. The causes which led to this re-establishment of the Antient Grand Lodge were to be advertised in the London newspapers, a public declaration, guaranteed to reach the eyes of the leaders of the United Grand Lodge. The rebellion had succeeded, but the grievances which re-established the Antient Grand Lodge, which was based on the Old York Constitutions, had its roots over a century earlier.
    With the revision of the ritual under the Rev. Desaguliers and James Anderson in the early 1720s, many of the more traditional Freemasons became alarmed at the drastic changes in the ritual. A main concern was the way that the two masonic degrees, which had existed in the seventeenth century had, since the 1720s, been made into three main degrees by the Premier Grand Lodge, using the same material1.
    One of the first localities that declared itself separate from Grand Lodge was York, and on 27 December 1725 they formed the ‘Grand Lodge of all England held at York’, based on a tradition that the Saxon King Edwin had supposedly presided over a meeting of masons in York. The York Grand Lodge continued until 1792, and may have even survived into the early years of the nineteenth century.
    The formation of ‘The Grand Lodge of England according to the Old Institutions’, otherwise known as the ‘Antients’, took place in 1751 in London, the Grand Secretary being Laurence Dermott. The differences developed into a bitter feud, and were only reconciled in 1813 when the Duke of Sussex, with the help of his brother, the Duke of Kent, merged both the ‘Moderns’ and the ‘Antients’, creating the United Grand Lodge of England.

Continued opposition to the Union

In spite of the Union, discontent lingered and concerns about changes in ritual caused heated discussions in many lodges. Lancashire, a Province which had been neglected by their Provincial Grand Master, Francis Dukinfield Astley, suffered during this period. It was a large Province, and the majority of the masonic workload was left to the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Daniel Lynch, who had to mediate with the lodges that had witnessed disturbances in the wake of the Union.
    It was a Liverpool Freemason who was to instigate the rebellion. Michael Alexander Gage was a Liverpool tailor2, and had been a Past Master of No. 31 Lodge, an Antient lodge based in Liverpool. In an open Provincial Grand Lodge meeting in 1818 in Hanging Ditch, he had put forward a motion regarding the rules of a lodge. When this motion was ignored by the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge, Gage instigated the cause for independence, with a speech at the Provincial Grand Lodge, which played on the arrogance of the Duke of Sussex and the lack of interest of the United Grand Lodge.
    By 1822 the United Grand Lodge had decided that William Meyrick, the Grand Chancellor of the United Grand Lodge, should be placed in charge of the Province as Acting Provincial Grand Master. Curiously, Astley still retained his title as Provincial Grand Master, and Meyrick actually paid little attention to the Province. Gage’s lodge, Lodge No. 31, was erased from the list of lodges, its Warrant forfeited after their continued misconduct, and Gage and his followers were suspended.
    Dissent in Lancashire started to spread, and a bitter exchange began between the United Grand Lodge and the dissenters. On 5 March 1823, the United Grand Lodge finally expelled twenty-six Brethren, stating that the rebels had ‘been found guilty of various Acts of insubordination against the Authority of the Grand Lodge, and . . . have not sent any sufficient apology for their late misconduct’. Their rebellious activities were described as an ‘insult’, and the Brethren having ‘violated the laws of the Craft’, were ostracized3. Gage and his followers were now free to resurrect the Antient Grand Lodge.

A New Grand Lodge

The ‘Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England According to the Old Constitutions’, first met in Liverpool in July 1823, and the ‘Magna Charta of Masonic Freedom’ was read out in the meeting in the Shakespeare Tavern in December. The Grand Lodge first met in Wigan on 1 March 1824, and was to meet only in Wigan from 1825. At its height in the early 1840s, it had lodges in Warrington, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Liverpool, Barnsley, and had been in close contact with an Antient lodge in Lynn Regis in Norfolk, probably because Gage originated from there and had links with the town4.

New Warrants issued

As the Wigan Grand Lodge slowly began to spread its influence, new Warrants were issued, with the lodges under its sway being numbered. As there were only five lodges, they were subsequently numbered one to five, though the Barnsley lodge opted out of the Wigan Grand Lodge, and the Warrington lodge was relatively short lived.
    The issue of Warrants upset Gage, who, though not having attended the Grand Lodge, or any other regular lodge for fifteen years, had always been given the title of Deputy Grand Master, enjoying the task of overlooking the activities by correspondence.
    Gage was also upset that the ‘Magna Charta’ had been breached, as it stated that on the creation of the Wigan Grand Lodge, all the numbers of the lodges reverted to their pre-Union numbers. In 1842, Gage wrote a lengthy letter of resignation, in which he outlined his feelings at not being asked to review the decision of the new Warrants. He was a proud man, and as he was the person who had instigated the Wigan Grand Lodge, he appears to have been hurt by the decision. Despite Gage’s coldness, he was still the spiritual leader of the ‘Antients’, and in the reply to his resignation, Gage was described by the Grand Master as a man whom ‘the tyrants in the masonic world would have always looked upon with dread’.5
    The Grand Lodge had moved on, and had become firmly seated in Wigan. Gage was based in Liverpool, and though seemingly showing a lack of interest in masonry, he held a sense of importance when it came to his position within the Wigan Grand Lodge. His lack of interest may have resulted from the re-location of the Grand Lodge to Wigan, or may have been down to Gage having a family and changing his career6. He remained a rebel to the end however, effectively rebelling against the rebels. He was always an obstinate man, passionate and arrogant in the face of opposition. He held the respect of his fellow rebels, and without Gage, there would have been no Wigan Grand Lodge. The rebels could channel their anger through the formation of the Wigan Grand Lodge, and its success was manifested in its effect on the United Grand Lodge.
    After Gage’s resignation, the Wigan Grand Lodge continued to meet until 1866, when only one lodge remained. Gage died the following year, and it is tempting to suggest that, like the York Grand Lodge before it, the Wigan Grand Lodge only survived as long as its founder. The surviving Sincerity Lodge stubbornly held on as the only remaining lodge, isolated and alone. It only surrendered in 1913, re-joining the United Grand Lodge, finally laying to rest the ghost of Michael Alexander Gage.

1 Knoop, D., & Jones, G.P., 1940. A Short History of Freemasonry To 1730, Manchester University Press, p.137.
2 Gore’s Liverpool Trade Directory, 1825. Liverpool Library. Ref: H942.7215 & Church records for St. Nicholas, Liverpool; Baptism of Michael Alexander, son of Michael Alexander Gage, Tailor & Draper, & his wife Sarah, 18 September, 1823. Liverpool Library. Ref: 283NIC2/2.
3 Beesley, E.B., 1920. The History of the Wigan Grand Lodge, Manchester Association for Masonic Research, Leeds, pp.16-19.
4 1851 Census for Liverpool, Lancashire. Liverpool Library. Ref: 153/2183.
5 Beesley, E.B., 1920. The History of the Wigan Grand Lodge, Manchester Association for Masonic Research, Leeds, pp.83-88.
6 1851 Census for Liverpool, Lancashire. Liverpool Library. Ref: 153/2183 and Church Records for St. Peters, Liverpool; Baptism of William Henry, son of Michael Alexander Gage, Land Surveyor, & his wife Sarah, 25th of December, 1833. Liverpool Library. Ref: 283PET2/21.