Freemasonry and Fraternal Societies

Dr David Harrison is a UK based Masonic historian who has so far written twelve books on the history of English Freemasonry and has published many papers and articles on the subject to various journals and magazines, such as the AQC, Philalethes Journal, the UK based Freemasonry Today, MQ Magazine, The Square, the US based Knight Templar Magazine and the Masonic Journal. Harrison has also appeared frequently on TV and radio discussing his work. Having gained his PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2008, which focused on the development of English Freemasonry, the thesis was subsequently published in March 2009 entitled The Genesis of Freemasonry by Lewis Masonic. The work became a best seller and is now on its third imprint. 

Harrison’s other works include The Transformation of Freemasonry published in 2010, the Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the Wigan Grand Lodge published in 2012, A Quick Guide to Freemasonry, which was published by Lewis Masonic in 2013, an examination of the York Grand Lodge published in 2014, Freemasonry and Fraternal Societies published in 2015, The City of York: A Masonic Guide published in 2016, and a biography of 19th century Liverpool philanthropist Christopher Rawdon which was published in the same year. A compilation of his best articles on the history of Freemasonry was published in 2019 entitled A Journey through Freemasonry.

In 2017, Harrison’s The Lost Rites and Rituals of Freemasonry was published by Lewis Masonic, which became the first in the Lost Rites series. This was followed by Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry, published in May 2020, and the next in the series entitled The Rite of Seven Degrees is to be published in 2021. Harrison has lectured history at the University of Liverpool and Hope University, Liverpool, and regularly gives talks on many aspects of Masonic history to lodges and conferences all over the world. He was the keynote speaker for the Philalethes Society at the Mid-west conference in Winnipeg, Canada in 2013 and gave the annual presentation to Ars Macionica at the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium in 2017. Harrison is a Past Master of the Lodge of Lights No. 148 in the West Lancashire Province under the United Grand Lodge of England, and he is also a Fellow of the Philalethes in the US.