Finally it was decreed that the Grand Lodge should consist of the four present and all past grand officers; the Grand Treasurer, Secretary, and Sword-Bearer; the Master, Wardens, and nine assistants of the Grand Stewards' lodge, and the Masters and Wardens of all the regular lodges.
Past Masters were not at first admitted as members of the Grand Lodge.
There is no recognition of them in the old Constitutions.

Walworth thinks it must have been after 1772 that they were introduced.[8] I have extended my researches to some years beyond that period, without any success in finding their recognition as members under the Constitution of England.

It is true that, in 1772, Dermott prefixed a note to his edition of the Ahiman Rezon, in which he asserts that "Past Masters of warranted lodges on record are allowed this privilege (of membership) whilst they continue to be members of any regular lodge." And it is, doubtless, on this imperfect authority, that the Grand Lodges of America began at so early a period to admit their Past Masters to seats in the Grand Lodge.

In the authorized Book of Constitutions, we find no such provision.

Indeed, Preston records that in 1808, at the laying of the foundation-stone of the Covent Garden Theatre, by the Prince of Wales, as Grand Master, "the Grand Lodge was opened by Charles Marsh, Esq., attended by the _Masters and Wardens_ of all the regular lodges;" and, throughout the description of the ceremonies, no notice is taken of Past Masters as forming any part of the Grand Lodge.