Present at the Gala were two members of the Lodge of Antiquity (once, as the Goose and Gridiron, a founder of the Grand Lodge). John Bottomley was then the Master, and John Noorthouck a colleague of Preston at Strahan's printing firm. Antiquity was suffering from declining membership, and these two men conceived the idea of reviving their lodge by recruiting Preston. He was elected a member, "in absentia", on 1 June 1774. On his first attendance as a member, a fortnight later, he was elected Master of the lodge. The lodge accordingly flourished, which somehow displeased Bro Noorthouck. He complained that the younger masons who now flocked to the lodge were all Preston's creatures, which had enabled him to stay in the chair for three and a half years.