Accepted masons

See under (def 2b).
a member of a widely distributed secret order (Free and Accepted Masons) having for its object mutual assistance and the promotion of brotherly love among its members.
(lowercase) History/Historical.

one of a class of skilled stoneworkers of the Middle Ages, possessing secret signs and passwords.
a member of a society composed of such workers, which also included honorary members (accepted masons) not connected with the building trades.

Historical Examples

The butcher, and little fellow, who are assisting the terrified passengers, are possibly free and accepted masons.
The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings John Trusler

About this time the society of “Free and accepted masons” appeared publicly in this city.
A Comprehensive History of Norwich A. D. Bayne

There was hanging up in the Hall a list of the accepted masons enclosed in a “faire frame, with a lock and key.”
The Builders Joseph Fort Newton

noun
(medieval history) a member of a guild of itinerant skilled stonemasons, who had a system of secret signs and passwords with which they recognized each other
noun
a member of the widespread secret order, constituted in London in 1717, of Free and Accepted Masons, pledged to brotherly love, faith, and charity Sometimes shortened to Mason
n.

late 14c., originally a traveling guild of masons with a secret code; in the early 17c. they began accepting honorary members and teaching them the secrets and lore, which by 1717 had developed into the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons.

The exact origin of the free- is a subject of dispute. Some [e.g. Klein] see a corruption of French frère “brother,” from frèremaçon “brother mason;” others say it was because the masons worked on “free-standing” stones; still others see them as “free” from the control of local guilds or lords [OED].