Hellfire Club
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The Hellfire Club was the popular name for what is supposed to have been an exclusive English club established by Sir Francis Dashwood which met irregularly from 1746[citation needed] to around 1760 as an extension to his Society of Dilettanti. The term was not invented by the Dashwood group - other clubs using the name "Hellfire Club" were set up throughout the 18th century, most notably the "Hell-Fire Club" founded around 1719 in London by Philip, Duke of Wharton - neither is there any evidence that they used it of themselves, but used a number of mockingly religious titles, initially the Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe. Other titles used included the Order of Knights of West Wycombe and later the Monks of Medmenham. The members called each other Brothers and referred to Dashwood as Abbot; female "guests", for which read prostitutes, were Nuns. Unlike the more determined Satanists of the 1720s the club motto was Fay ce que vouldras (Do what thou wilt) from François Rabelais, later used by Aleister Crowley. Although perhaps indulging in pseudo-Satanic rites, records Horace Walpole the monks' " practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed the neighbourhood of the complexion of those hermits."
According to tradition, the first gathering of this "unholy sodalily" in May 1746 was at the George and Vulture public house in Lombard Street, London. This meeting-place, however, has been ascribed to several other of the Hellfire Clubs, so it must be treated as anecdotal. Later it met at on Dashwood's properties at meetings at West Wycombe Caves and at Medmenham Abbey, beside the Thames. The initial membership was limited to twelve but it soon increased. Of the original twelve, some are regularly identified: Dashwood, of course, Robert Vansittart, Thomas Potter the son of the archbishop of Canterbury, Francis Duffield, Edward Thompson and Paul Whitehead. Not a member, Benjamin Franklin is said occasionally to have attended the club's meetings[citation needed]; Though over 60 and fabulously corpulent, the name of George Bubb Dodington often arises, and William Hogarth[citation needed], though hardly a gentleman and therefore unlikely to have fitted in, has been suggested in association with the club.
The George and Vulture burned down in 1749, possibly owing to a club meeting. However, it was rebuilt shortly afterwards and survives as a City chop house off Cornhill. Dickens lived and wrote here for some while and the Pickwick Club still meets there to this day. After a hiatus, meetings were resumed at members' homes. Dashwood built a temple in the grounds of his West Wycombe home and nearby 'catacombs' were excavated. The first meeting at Wycombe was held on Walpurgis Night, 1752; a much larger meeting, it was something of a failure and no large-scale meetings were held there again. Despite this and the factionalising of the club Dashwood acquired the ruins of Medmenham Abbey in 1755[citation needed], which was rebuilt by the architect Nicholas Revett in the style of the 18th century Gothic revival. It is thought that William Hogarth may have executed murals for this building; none, however, survive.
The list of supposed members is immense; among the more probable candidates are John Wilkes and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Whatever the nature (the existence, even) of such club, there is no question that several events in the early 1760s prevented further activities on the part of Dashwood.
The first was the rise of the Earl of Bute and the Tory party to power following the accession of George III in 1760. In 1762 Bute appointed Dashwood his Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite Dashwood's being widely held to be incapable of understanding "a bar bill of five figures". (Dashwood resigned the post the next year, having raised a tax on cider which caused near-riots.) The second was the publication (1762-5) of Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea by Charles Johnstone, in which Lord Sandwich was ridiculed as having mistaken a monkey for the Devil, supposedly during a rite of the club. The third was the attempted arrest and prosection of John Wilkes for seditious libel against the King in the notorious issue 45 of his North Briton in early 1763. During a search authorised by a General Warrant a version of The Essay on Woman was discovered set up on the press of a printer whom Wilkes had almost certainly used. This scurrilous, blasphemous, libellous pornographic skit, principally written by Thomas Potter which can from internal evidence be dated to around 1755, was subsequently to be used by the Government as the means by which to destroy Wilkes as a public figure.
[edit] References in popular culture
- A recreation of the Hellfire Club is the main focus of an episode of The Avengers, called A Touch of Brimstone, infamous for the risque outfit Diana Rigg wears. Peter Wyngarde - the main guest-star of the episode - has an official fanclub also named after the club.
- In Australia, loosely-connected Hellfire Clubs with a BDSM theme were founded in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane by underground film director and producer Richard Wolstencroft.
- There have been an electronica band and a country band called The Hellfire Club, as well as one band called The Little Hellfire Club, and another called The Infamous Hellfire Club
- British comedy programme Blackadder references the club in Blackadder the Third, with Prince George making numerous comments about spending time at 'The Naughty Hellfire Club'.
- Doctor Who Audio Drama #019 Minuet in Hell (from Big Finish) features a modern-day Hellfire Club based in the USA.
- The suspense of Olivier Assayas film Demonlover (2002) partly regards The Hellfire Club both as a critical element and as a metaphorical border between reality and virtual world.
- Kathy Reichs' novel Fatal Voyage involves a Hellfire Club spinoff in the US begun in the early 20th century by Prentice Dashwood, a descendant of Sir Francis. This group, which calls itself H&F, practices ritual cannibalism to impart wisdom to its leaders. According to the novel, the group met its demise in 2001.
- Hard NRG VII, also called The Hellfire Club, is an album by DJ Proteus. The album also contains a track called "The Hellfire Club".
- There is also a UK NU-NRG group called Heelfire Club consiting of Baby Doc and SJ, usually releasing tracks on the Resist/React Label.
- Diana Gabaldon's short story "Hellfire", written in 1998, was the first of her Lord John Grey mystery stories set in 18th century London. While trying to solve a murder mystery, Lord John finds himself being initiated into the Hellfire Club at Medmenham Abbey.
- Several guilds take on the name "Hellfire Club" throughout the servers of the Mmorpg World of Warcraft
- Horrorcore Rap Artists Tommie and Phatty Smallz of Robinson, Illinois, Go under the name "The Hellfire Club"
- The Hellfire Club is a villainous organization of upperclass mutants in Marvel Comic's X-Men.
- Hellfire Club is the title of the sixth studio album by the German power metal band, Edguy, released in 2004.
- In the episode The Call of the Yeti in the second series of The Mighty Boosh Naboo has a conversation with another Shaman, during which they recall a night out at "Wycombe caves"
[edit] External links
- A history of the Hellfire Club
- The Hellfire Club in Sydney Australia
- Photographs of Medmenham and the Hellfire Club Tunnels in West Wycombe, near London
- Photographs of the Irish Hellfire Club near Dublin
- Hellfire Francis - Sir Francis Dashwood and the English Hellfire Club
- The Irish Hellfire Club: No Smoke Without Fire
- The Irish Hellfire Club: Hellfire & Harlots
- The Irish Hellfire Club: Askeaton Co. Limierick, Ireland
- Accidental Satanists
- Hellfire Clubs at Disinformation
