A host of Grand Officers were instrumental in remoulding English Freemasonry. Alongside Desaguliers, Payne and Folkes, they included William Cowper, Nathaniel Blackerby and Alexander Chocke, all members of the Duke of Richmond’s Horn Tavern lodge. Cowper was appointed the first Secretary of the Grand Lodge of England in 1723-25 and served as Deputy Grand Master in 1726. Chocke, a Grand Warden in 1726, was appointed Deputy Grand Master in 1727. Blackerby served as Deputy Grand Master from 1728-30 and in 1730 became the first Grand Treasurer. In common with many other London freemasons, all sat as senior magistrates on the Middlesex and Westminster benches where political loyalty to the government was a touchstone for office.

Grand Officers, 1717-1733