The earliest English records of the Mark degree date to 1769, when the degree was worked within the Chapter of Friendship, Royal Arch Chapter No. 257 (formerly No. 3) in Portsmouth, as recorded by Mark Masons' Hall. The surviving record documents the body under whose auspices the degree was conferred rather than naming a specific individual as the celebrant.
2
was it worked in a craft lodge or a chapter
The earliest recorded Mark degree in England was worked within a Royal Arch chapter rather than a Craft lodge. This took place on 1 September 1769 in the Chapter of Friendship No. 257 in Portsmouth, as recorded by Mark Masons' Hall.
3
what about the earliest record in Scotland
A 1599 minute book of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 records that several speculative brethren had appended their Marks after their names, as Mark Masons' Hall notes. This minute from Mary's Chapel in Edinburgh provides the earliest surviving documentary evidence in Scotland of brethren registering and appending individual marks within a lodge context.
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