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The Scottish Rite in North America is made up of three separate and sovereign jurisdictions. In the pamphlet “Presenting the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry” published by the Supreme Council (Mother Council of the World) Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A. they state, “ The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, as we know it toady, had its origins on the continent of Europe. Its immediate predecessor, known as The Order of the Royal Secret, consisted of 25 Degrees under the Constitutions of 1762. Masonic tradition maintains that Lodges of this Rite, transmitted from Bordeaux in France through the West Indies to the American mainland, were established at New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1763; at Albany, New York, in 1767; at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1781-82; and at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1783. The Grand Constitutions of 1786 provided for an extension of the Rite to thirty-three Degrees, governed in each country under a Supreme Council of the Thirty-third and Last Degree. Its provisions were cited in a Manifesto at Charleston that confirmed the first Supreme Council ever opened under these Grand Constitutions, on May 31 1801, “by Brothers John Mitchell and Frederick Dalcho.” All regular and recognized Supreme Councils and their Subordinate Bodies today are descended directly or collaterally from this Mother Supreme Council of the World.”