In the 18th century United Kingdom, major trades were organised in guilds or other forms of syndicates, but smaller trades did not have equivalent social or financial security. One theory has it that "odd fellows", people who exercised unusual, miscellaneous "odd trades", eventually joined together to form a larger group of "odd fellows". Another theory suggests that in the beginning of odd fellowship in the 18th century, at the time of the early era of industrialisation, it was rather odd to find people who followed noble values such as fraternalism, benevolence and charity. The name was supposedly adopted at a time when the severance into sects and classes was so wide that persons aiming at social union and mutual help were a marked exception to the general rule. Possibly, it met a mixed reaction from the upper classes, who may have seen them as a source of revenue by taxes, but also as a threat to their authority. Any suggestion of history before the 18th century is considered mere speculation. History Background The Odd Fellows are one of the earliest and oldest fraternal societies, but their early history is obscure and largely undocumented. Traditions tracing the fraternity's origins back to Roman emperors Nero and Titus are considered dubious. The evolution of the society from medieval guilds, however, is more reliably documented. By the 13th century, tradesmen's guilds had become established and prosperous. During the 14th century, guild masters moved to protect their power and wealth by restricting access to the guilds. In response, the less experienced and less wealthy fellows established their own rival guilds., , When Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, he viewed the guilds as supporting the pope, and in 1545 he confiscated all material property of the guilds. Elizabeth I stripped the guilds of the responsibility for training apprentices, and by the end of her reign, most guilds had been suppressed. Foundation There were numerous Oddfellow organizations in England in the 1700s. One Edwardian Oddfellow history argued that in 1710 there was a 'Loyal Lintot of Oddfellows' in London. The first Oddfellows group in South Yorkshire, England, dates from 1730. The earliest surviving documented evidence of an “Oddfellows” lodge is the minutes of Loyal Aristarchus Oddfellow Lodge no. 9 in England, dated 12 March 1748. By it being lodge number 9, this connotes that there were older Oddfellows lodges that existed before this date.