In 1723 there came to Boston a young man of 26 named Henry Price, a member of some Lodge not now known but probably in London. He had a deep interest in Masonry and on visiting London in 1733 he obtained a commission from Viscount Montague (or Montaque,as it is sometimes spelled), Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, appointing him Provincial Grand Master for New England.

Back in Boston on July 30,1733, he called together at The Bunch of Grapes Tavern ten Masons known by him, read his commission and organized his Provincial Grand Lodge known thereafter as the St Johns Grand Lodge.

He then confered the degrees upon eight candidates. The eighteen then petitioned to be formed into a lodge. The origional petition, with the eighteen autograp signatures, is in the possession of the Grand Lodge. Price then and there granted the petition and formally constituted the First Lodge in Boston, now in flourshing existence under the name of saint Johns Lodge. This as Price himself declared was the founding of regular and duly constituted Freemasonry in America.

This precedence gives the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts the distinction of being the third oldest Grand Lodge in the world and the oldest in the Western Hemisphere.

By the middle of the century there were Masons in Boston who did not care to affiliate with Princes lodges. A group of them petitioned the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a charter and received it 1756, under the names Saint Andrews lodge, still in existence. This was followed in 1769 by a commission from the Grand Master Mason of Scotland appointing Joseph Warren provincial Grand Master for New England and one hundred miles around the same.

In 1792 the two Grand lodges united, changing the name to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and electing John Cutler Grand Master. Saint Andrews Lodge did not join, preferring to work independently under it's Scottish charter. In 1809, however, it decided to transfer its allegiance and Massachusetts Masonry was finally, permanently unified.