When was freemasonry founded?

Masonic Lodges have existed since the Middle Ages. However, some date speculative Freemasonry from the introduction of the Schaw Statutes in Scotland in 1598 and 1599. This is the Freemasonry of the so-called "Ancients." The Freemasonry of the "Moderns" is dated from 1717, when four London lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse to form the first grand lodge. Many believe, however, that this was merely a move by Whigs among the upper-class Freemasons of London to distance themselves from the Tories and Jacobites among the older, Ancients strain of the fraternity.