Save all that bravado for the officer's club, I drank and brawled with the NCOs...
Semper Fi
Sir Francis Dashwood is one of those colourful characters from our past whose life was shrouded in controversy, half-truths and gossip. During his day it was widely rumoured that he and his group were evil Devil worshippers, Satanist’s up to all sorts of diabolical doings, rituals and orgies, many of which in today’s more enlightened times, few if any people would even raise an eye brow. He was an aristocrat and a man of influence but also the rogue of his day, he reveled in his indulgences living his life to the full and not giving a damn for the consequences. As such his name and that of his order was just the stuff on which legend was founded. This is the life story of Sir Francis Dashwood and the “Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe”.
In 1708 during the reign of Queen Anne, Francis Dashwood was born in London to a wealthy family of landed gentry. He was the only son of Sir Francis Dashwood and his second wife of four, Lady Mary Fane the eldest daughter of Baron Le Despencer. Sir Francis was a wealthy businessman who had built the family fortune from his dealings with the Ottoman Empire trading in Turkey and China. When Francis was two years old his mother Lady Mary died and his father promptly remarried.
Not much is known of Francis during his formative years except that he was educated at Eton. There he became associated with William Pitt the Elder (later the Great Commoner) and being of the same age the two became good friends retaining a deep mutual respect for each other. In 1724 his father died and Francis having just turned 16 inherited his baronetcy, the family estate at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and a vast family fortune.
In 1726 Sir Francis started out on his first “Grand Tour” of Europe. It was customary during those times for the sons of nobles and those of wealth Englishmen to finish their early education visiting the royal courts of Europe. Normally this was acomplished with the guidence of a personal tutor (his was said to have been a Catholic Jacobite their family having mild Jacobite leanings). While traveling around Europe they could sample the intellectual arts and other such treasures that the continent had to offer. Sir Francis being a young man of high spirits and lascivious inclinations roistered his way from royal court to royal court creating a stir wherever he went. He duly visited the art galleries and museums but spent just as much time in bawdy alehouses and risqué bordellos generally indulging in delights that would shape and characterize his life thereafter. One of his favorite phrases at the time was: “To taste the sweets of all things”. This first trip to Europe lasted eight months and took him to France and Switzerland then back through Germany.
During 1729 Sir Francis took another tour this time starting in Italy, and it was here that the future Dashwood of legend was formed. Italy at that time was a hotbed of occultism and Sir Francis reveled in his study of the forbidden arts and was particularly drawn to the Eleusinian mysteries. He was also greatly influenced by the work of Francois Rabelais and his fictional Abbey of Thélème. One story that became legend tells of his rakish sense of humour particularly in relation to his mockery of religion. His tutor the Catholic Jacobite ever disdainful of his promiscuous behavior, insisted on taking Sir Francis to the Sistine Chapel hoping to instill some form of respect for Christianity. Sir Horace Walpole (the 4th Earl of Orford) witnessed the event and wrote:
"It was on Good-Friday when each person who attends the service in the Sistine Chapel, as he enters takes a small scourge from an attendant at the door. The chapel is dimly lighted and there are three candles which are extinguished by the priest one by one: at the putting out of the first, the penitents take off one part of their dress; at the next, still more; and in the darkness which follows the extinguishing of the third candle, lay on their shoulders with groans and lamentations. Sir Francis Dashwood thinking this mere stage effect, entered with others dressed in a large watchman’s coat, demurely he took his scourge from the priest and advanced to the end of the chapel, where, on the darkness ensuing, he drew from beneath his coat an English horsewhip and flogged right and left quite down the chapel and made his escape, the congregation exclaiming "Il Diavolo! Il Diavolo!" thinking the evil one was upon them with a vengeance. The consequences of this frolic might have been serious to him, had he not immediately left the Papal dominions."
The title "Il Diavolo! Il Diavolo!" remained with Sir Francis for the rest of his life.
Another story further explains his growing distain for Christianity. One night after the event in the Sistine Chapel his tutor was awakened by terrible screams coming from his masters chamber. Investigating he found Sir Francis staring outside at four gleaming green eyes accompanied by a terrible screeching and wailing. Sir Francis was convinced that this was a four-eyed devil that had come to haunt him because of his actions. The more worldly-wise tutor recognized instantly that it was simply two cats fighting outside his quarters, but decided not to explain this to Sir Francis and instead went along with his misconceptions in an attempt to get him to see the error of his ways. The tutor's ploy worked for a time and against his genuine inclinations Sir Francis became a convert to Catholicism. Eventually the tutor's plan backfired for when Sir Francis found out about his deception, it served only to fuel an intense dislike of organized religion.
Semper Pity