SECTION VIE.

THE GRAND DEACONS.
The office of Grand Deacon is of more modern origin than that of any other officer in the Grand Lodge. I can find no reference to it in any of the old Regulations, in Anderson, or any subsequent edition of the Book of Constitutions, in Preston's Illustrations, or in Lawrie's History. By the Regu- lations of 1721, the duties of the Grand Deacons seem to have been divided between the Grand Wardens and the Stewards ; nor is a place appropri- ated in any of the processions described in the vari- ous works already cited. They are first found in a procession which took place in 1831, recorded by Oliver, in his Continuation of Preston's History. But they have since been placed among the officers of the Grand Lodge in the Constitutions of England, Scotland and Ireland.
In America, the office has an older date ; for Grand Deacons are recorded as being present in a procession of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, in 1783, the account of which is to be found in Smith's " Ahiman Rezon." They are also mentioned among the officers of the Grand Lodge in the Constitution
486 ' GRAND MARSHAL.
adopted in 1797 by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. I know not whence the anomaly arose of these officers existing in Grand Lodges of America in the eighteenth century, while they are not to be found in those of Great Britain until late in the nineteenth. They could scarcely have been derived from the Athol Grand Lodge, since the York Masons of South Carolina had no such officers in 1807, when Dalcho published the first edition of his " Ahiman Rezon."* Be this as it may, the office is now recog- nized in all the Grand Lodges of this country. t
The Grand Deacons are generally two in number, a Senior, who is usually appointed by the Grand Master, and a Junior, who receives his appointment from the Senior Grand Warden. It is their pro- vince to attend upon the Grand Master and Ward- ens, and to act as their proxies in the active duties of the Grand Lodge. Their duties differ but little from those of the corresponding officers in a subor- dinate Lodge.