Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario

The Provincial Grand Lodge of Upper Canada was formed at the request of Alexander Wilson by the Grand Lodge of England in 1792. Its first Provincial Grand Master was William Jarvis. However, unlike Prince Edward, the Provincial Grand Master for the Provincial Grand Lodge of Lower Canada, William Jarvis was not endowed by the Grand Lodge of England with the power to grant warrants for new lodges.

Growing dissatisfaction within the members of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Upper Canada with the slow responses of the Grand Lodge of England in forwarding warrants, certificates and the like led to the question of whether it was time to create an independent grand lodge in Canada. After a Provincial Grand Lodge meeting in which the idea was ruled out of order by the Deputy Grand Master, the officers met and formed the Grand Lodge of Canada on 10 October 1855. Its officers were elected the next day, with William Mercer Wilson being elected the first Grand Master of the newly created Grand Lodge, and installed on 2 November.[5]

Over the next few years the Grand Lodge went about petitioning the lodges of Canada West to come under the fold of their newly created Grand Lodge. Within a few years, not only were almost all the masonic lodges of Canada West under the jurisdiction of the GLC, but, since 1859, so were most of the lodges of Canada East. However, in 1869, sixteen of the lodges in Quebec (formerly Canada East) formed their own Grand Lodge, and in 1874 the Grand Lodge of Canada completely withdrew from the province of Québec, and twenty-four more lodges moved from the Grand Lodge of Canada to the Grand Lodge of Quebec. In 1887 the name of the Grand Lodge was changed to the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, a compromise name which reflects both the Ontario-only jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge as well as its history of being the first Grand Lodge in Canada.