George Washington and Freemasonry

George Washington entered Freemasonry in Fredericksburg, Virginia, at age 20, years before he took command of the Continental Army, making him the first and only U.S. president to serve as a Master Mason while serving as commander-in-chief. The year was 1752. The fraternity had taken firm root among the Virginia gentry, offering a network of mutual aid grounded in Enlightenment-era principles of brotherhood and moral virtue. Young Washington, a planter with military ambitions, joined the same social circles that produced his generation's leadership class.

On November 4, 1752, Washington stood in Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 and was initiated as an Entered Apprentice. The lodge records from that night still survive. Nine months later, on August 4, 1753, he was raised to Master Mason in the same lodge, completing the first three degrees of Masonry. He remained a member for life. As the Revolution approached and colonial elites increasingly filled lodge rooms, Washington's affiliation deepened. In 1788, he was elected Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, a lodge originally chartered under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania before receiving a Virginia charter. He served as master for roughly 20 months. During his presidency, he wrote to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of New York in 1789, affirming that Masonic principles required obedience to civil authority and that the institution could not be guilty of any plot against government. His ally Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney General of the United States, also served as Grand Master of Masons in Virginia.

On September 18, 1793, Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol in a full Masonic ceremony conducted by Maryland lodges. He wore a Masonic apron and sash. James Hoban, the architect of the White House and a fellow Freemason, stood beside him. At his funeral on December 18, 1799, members of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 performed Masonic rites at Mount Vernon alongside Episcopal services, with his lodge brothers serving as pallbearers. Surviving records show Washington attended lodge functions irregularly and never held national Masonic office.