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

In the early Constitutions of the Grand Lodge, provision was made for a book to be kept by the Grand Master, his Deputy, or a brother specifically appointed by the Grand Lodge as Secretary 1. The Secretary was made an officer and member of the Grand Lodge by virtue of his office, with the right to vote on all matters except the election of the Grand Master or Wardens 1.

The primary duties recorded for the office involve record-keeping and administrative oversight 1. The Secretary was charged with recording all lodges, their usual times and places of meeting, and the names of all members of each lodge 1. He was further tasked with recording all affairs of the Grand Lodge proper to be written down 1. The Grand Master or his Deputy retained authority to command the Secretary—along with the Treasurer, their respective clerks, and their books—in order to examine the state of business and determine what was required on emergent occasions 1.

In later accounts, Mackey notes that the office was created in the year 1738, with the officer appointed annually by the Grand Master 2.

Before the office of Secretary was formally established in the early Constitutions of the Grand Lodge, record-keeping in Masonic lodges was carried out through less standardized and more varied administrative practices 14.

In early Scottish operative lodges, records were frequently kept by the Warden or Master, or by a designated scribe or clerk 4. For example, the earliest 16th-century volume of minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1, covering records from 1598 to 1686, was known simply as "our Vardene booke" 4. During this early period, lodges often relied on a somewhat careless system of keeping detached minutes, which were only later engrossed or bound into permanent volumes, occasionally leading to lost records, incomplete entries, or blank spaces left for a scribe to fill up at a later time 4.

In other early lodges, records were kept in dedicated volumes such as an "apprentice minute-book" 3. In the Aberdeen Lodge, for instance, records dating back to 1670 split administrative matters between different sections of the book, placing elections in one part and entries of admissions or financial obligations in another 3. Individual minutes were signed directly by the Master, Wardens, or the candidates themselves 3. Some lodges, such as the Glasgow Journeymen Free-Operatives, eventually formalized the role under the combined title of "Secretary or Clerk" alongside the Box-masters and Wardens as administrative structures developed 4.