Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dermott, Laurence
DERMOTT, LAURENCE (1720–1791), freemason, born in Ireland in 1720, came to London about 1750. He was elected grand secretary of the ‘Antient’ masons in 1752. In 1771 the Duke of Atholl appointed him deputy grand master, the duties of which office he discharged until 1787. He died in London in 1791. It was to his great zeal that the success of the Atholl or Antient masons was mainly due. He has been described as ‘the literary man of the Antients.’ In 1756 he wrote a book entitled ‘Ahiman Rezon, or a Help to a Brother,’ one of the most famous books in connection with masonic literature of the last century.
[Grand Lodge Records; Gould's History of Freemasonry; Carson's Masonic Bibliography (Cincinnati); Bywater's Some Notes of Laurence Dermott and his Work.]