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About the degree
Similar to Craft Masonry the Mark Degree conveys moral and
ethical lessons using ritual allegory based around the building
of King Solomon's Temple. The Candidate is helped to choose his
personal mark and introduced to an extension of the Hiramic
legend relating to the manufacture, loss, and re-finding the key
stone of the Royal Arch
Qualification for membership
Every candidate to be Advanced to the degree of a Mark Master Mason must be a Master Mason of a regular and recognised Craft Lodge, while candidates for the office of Worshipful Master must normally have first served as Worshipful Master of a Craft Lodge, although a dispensation is regularly obtainable which obviates this prior condition.
History
An early form of Mark Masonry was practiced in Scotland before
1599 and records show the Degree being well established and
worked in Durham in the 1750's. But the most quoted "first
record" was when Thomas Dunkerley, Grand Superintendent in and
over Royal Arch Masonry for several Provinces, conferred the
degrees of Mark Man and Mark Master Mason at a Royal Arch
Chapter in Portsmouth in 1769. Later the Mark Degree was also
practiced in many Craft Lodges throughout England and Wales.
At the union of the Ancients and Moderns Grand Lodges and the
formation of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813 the
second Article of Union stated there would be 3 Degrees ONLY –
the E.A., F.C., and MM. – including the Royal Arch. Thus the
Mark Degree was excluded. For this reason, while in the rest of
the world Mark Masonry became firmly attached to Royal Arch
Chapters or Craft Lodges, in England it was proscribed until the
1850's. As Freemasonry spread across the globe in the 18th and
19th centuries Mark Masonry became well established and now has
a worldwide presence. (The Grand Lodge of MMM's for England &
Wales etc. has 8 Daughter Grand Lodges worldwide and is in amity
with further 83 Grand Chapters and Grand Craft Lodges throughout
the world, inc.UGLE) Following a failed attempt in 1856 to
re-introduce Mark Masonry as part of English Craft Masonry the
Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons was set up to govern the
Degree as an independent Sovereign body. The current Grand
Master is HRH Prince Michael of Kent the younger brother to the
Duke of Kent.
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