where did the office of secretary come from in craft masonry and what are his actual duties

Provision for the office of Secretary appears in the 1723 General Regulations published by James Anderson, which directed that a Brother be appointed to keep a book recording all constituent lodges, their meeting times and places, member rolls, and official business 1. Albert Mackey records that the office was formally created in 1738 as an annual appointment by the Grand Master 2.

Within the individual lodge, William Preston outlines the Secretary's core duties in his eighteenth-century installation address: the officer is charged to record the minutes, settle the lodge accounts, and issue the summonses for regular meetings 3. From a symbolic perspective, Oswald Wirth summarized the character of the office by observing that the Secretary guards the memory of the Lodge 2.

In early lodge practice, the execution of these duties was often informal. Minutes were bare and brief, frequently kept in a bag that the Secretary carried home or stowed at the bottom of a pedestal 2. These records were kept meager partly due to a lack of formal administrative routine, but also out of deliberate caution to protect lodge secrets and prevent private affairs from being exposed to prying eyes 2.