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Moira Lodge was constituted of the 17th of June 1755 and first met at the ‘Swan’ Upper Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London. The Lodge was then titled Lodge of Freedom & Ease. The original Warrant is still produced in Minute Book No 1 in the possession of the Lodge.
The name Moira Lodge was adopted in the latter part of 1802, on the patronage of Lord Moira.
From a historical perspective our first WM was installed in 1755. Our patron Lord Moira was appointed Grand Master from 1790 to 1812. The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) commenced in 1813 after Lord Moira resigned to take up post as the Governor of India. Moira 92 predates this union by nearly 60 years so you can imagine that our practices were well established before the union took place. Moira is a “Travelling lodge” or to give it its proper title a Peripatetic Lodge. That is one that is not fixed to any Masonic Hall and can meet in any approved place, we do things differently, using Nigerian Emulation Ritual.
English freemasonry has a lot to be grateful for Moira Lodge and from the records of the Lodge Freemasonry in England, Ireland and Scotland has been remarkably free from persecution at home. The closest it came to being closed down by the government was in the aftermath of the French Revolution, when the 1799 Unlawful Societies Act was passing through Parliament, in its original form the Act would have made masonic meetings illegal.
Fortunately, Lord Moira, Acting Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge, and the Duke of Athol, Grand Master of the Ancients Grand Lodge, were able to persuade the Prime Minister, William Pitt, of the moral basis of Freemasonry, its support for lawfully constituted authority and its benevolent activities. As a result, clauses were introduced into the Act specifically exempting Freemasonry from its provisions, provided that each year every lodge secretary supplied a full list of its members.
As early as 1809 committees met to consider the "propriety and practicability of union." On Oct. 26 of that year the Earl of Moira (for the Modems) warranted a special lodge to serve as a means for bringing about a merger; this lodge held Its first meeting on Nov. 21 and then resolved to call Itself "The Special Lodge of Promulgation." On April 10 of the year following the Earl of Moira Informed his Grand Lodge that both he and the Grand Master of the Ancients "were both fully of opinion, that It would be an event truly desirable, to consolidate under one head the two Societies of Masons that existed In this country." These proceedings were transmitted to the Grand Lodge of Ancients, where this frank avowal of a desire for union was met with unfeigned cordiality, so that after concessions were made by both sides, though more heartily by the Modems, it was agreed all the way around that differences should be ironed out, and a union be made. 'The Grand Assembly of Freemasons for the Union of the Two Grand Lodges of England" was held Dec. 27, 1813. With due and solemn ceremonies, the long wished for merger was consummated, all Grand officers showing, almost without exception, a fine and statesmanlike spirit. During the month preceding the Duke of Athol had resigned the Grand Mastership of the Ancients in favour of the Duke of Kent, the latter being placed in the chair Dec. 1; at the time of the Union the latter nominated the Duke of Sussex as "Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England" and he was unanimously elected.