The Order is commonly referred to as the Cryptic Degrees albeit incorrectly as only three of the four degrees refer to crypt.  The Order is governed by the Grand Council of England and Wales and its Districts and Councils Overseas from Mark Masons’ Hall, London.

In the early nineteenth century the degrees were worked in the United States of America as part of a sequence in the York Rite.

Some degrees of the Rite were, however, being worked in the North of England in the early nineteenth century.  The oldest recorded being a Council in Newcastle, which was working under a Templar Warrant prior to 1830.

The Order was formally introduced into England when the Grand Council of England and Wales was constituted on the 29th July, 1873 by four Councils chartered earlier by the Grand Council of New York.

The first Grand Master of the Order being a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, Reverend Canon Geo. Raymond Portal, MA.  Formal recognition of the Council working in Newcastle was given after negotiation, and a Warrant was granted, dated 28th July, 1893 to Royal Kent Council denominated ’A’ taking precedence over the four founding Councils of the Order.  The Councils in the North of England were directly responsible to Grand Council until 1980 when the five Councils then in existence in Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire were formed into the first Divisional Grand Inspector, one under the second and eleven under the third , including the three in the Masonic Province of Cumberland and Westmorland.

The latter rapid growth being just prior to the re-organisation of the administration of the Order, and the formation of Districts in England and Wales.

Candidates for admission to the Order must be Royal Arch Masons and Mark Master Masons.

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