When exactly the Gormogons died out is not known, but two considerations seem to render untenable Gould's theory that "the Order is said to have become extinct in 1738." In the first place the existence of a Lancashire Gormogon in the person of John Collier, better known as Tim Bobbin (1708-86) was revealed by the chance stumbling upon a poem of his, The Goose, by one of the present authors. The first appearance of the poem known to the authors is in Tim Bobbin's Collected Poems of 1757 and in any case very little of his verse is ascribed to a period before the last forty years of his life. The Goose has a dedication :-

" As I have the honor to be a member of the ancient and venerable order of the Gormogons, I am obliged by the laws of the great Chin-Quaiw-Ki-Po, emperor of China, to read, yearly, some part of the ancient records of that country.

The poem describes, in part, the spinning of a coin to settle a dispute about the payment for a goose :

" No sooner said than done-both parties willing
The Justice twirls aloft a splendid shilling ;
" While she, (ah nature, nature,) calls for tail,
And pity 'tis, poor soul, that she should fail
But chance decrees-up turns great Chin-Quaw-Ki-Po,
Whose very name my belly sore doth gripe-oh ! "

Secondly, Gould's theory is further stultified by the existence of some very rare but undoubtedly Gormogon medals which bear every evidence of having been minted as late as 1799.¹¹ .

There exists in the British Museum what may well be the only surviving specimen of a Gormogon medal which is exceedingly closely related to the very beautiful one of which a number of examples are known, and which has often been reproduced.

⁵ .

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Philip, Duke of Wharton Although various theories have been offered as to who the Gormogons were: that the Oecumenicae Volgi was the Chevalier Ramsey, then at Rome in attendance upon the Young Pretender; that the movement was an undefined Jesuit scheme; or that the Gormogons were the precursors of the Ancient Grand Lodge of England⁶ . — nothing is known for fact, but all evidence suggests an attempt by Philip, Duke of Wharton, to establish a Jacobite or Catholic Club.

Silver collar jewel, reverse shows sun radiating sixteen alternating straight and wavy lines.10 .

Philip, Duke of Wharton (b. December, 1698) ⁷ . a Jacobite sympathizer zealous for the Hanover Settlement and one-time president of one of the three Hell-Fire Clubs in London, was a colourful figure of the period. ⁸ . As publisher of True Briton from June 3, 1723 until February 17, 1724, his writings resulted in his printer, Samuel Richardson, being tried for libel and his own self-exile to the Continent where his service for the King of Spain in the siege of Gibralter lead to a charge of High Treason. With his estates frozen, he was living in Rouen when he was outlawed on April 3, 1729 for not appearing on the charge of High Treason. He died in indigence at a Bernadine convent in Catalonia, May 31, 1731.⁹ . His masonic history is equally colourful. While there is some question if he ever served as Master of his lodge — the Lodge at the King’s Arms, near St. Paul’s — he arranged to be elected the sixth Grand Master on June 24, 1722, when he also appointed Dr. Desaguliers his Deputy Grand Master and James Anderson a Grand Warden. The following year, at the Grand Festival of June 24, 1723, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to deprive the Grand Master of the privilege of appointing his Deputy by making the office subject to election in Grand Lodge. Unsuccessful in his attempt, the minutes of Grand Lodge record that "The late Grand Master went away from the Hall without Ceremony." From that date he had nothing further to do with Grand Lodge, although he did constitute the first lodge in foreign parts on the rolls of the Grand Lodge of England, the Madrid Lodge, Madrid, Spain on February 15, 1728. 1. "The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by ye Gormagons." William Hogarth, London: Printed for Robt. Sayer Map & Print Seller at No. 53 in Fleet Street. Reprinted in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. vol. viii (1895), also vol. lxxvii (1964) p. 15.
Hogarth’s print has been tentatively dated to December 1724. The engraving appeared in three states: the first without an artist’s name, the second had Hogarth Inv : et Sculp., and the third, London, Printed for Robt. Sayer, Map & Print Seller at No. 53 in Fleet Street.
An early work by Hogarth, he copied several figures from the Don Quixote series by Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752). The figure with his head through a ladder may be intended to be James Anderson; the figure in armour, Philip, Duke of Wharton; and the figure on the ass is perhaps John Desaguliers. Cf: "William Hogarth and his Fraternity" AQC. lxxvii (1964) pp. 14-18.
2. All quotes reproduced from "Masonic Celebrities, No. VI — The Duke of Wharton, G.M., 1722-23; with which is combined the true history of the Gormogons." By Bro. R. F. Gould. AQC. pp. 114-55. Cf.: Robert Freke Gould, The History of Freemasonry. Philadelphia: The John C. Yorston Publishing Co., 1902. vol. iii, pp. 129-31.
3. History, Gould. vol. iii, p. 41.
4. The Scald-Miserables processions organized by Paul Whitehead and Esquire Carey (later Grand Steward in 1740) were held on March 19, April 27 and May 2, 1741.
55. "A hitherto unknown Gormogon medal." Herbert Poole, AQC. vol. xxxxviii (1948), pp. 203-205.
6. Geschichte deio Freimaurerei, England, Irland, Schotand. Dr Kloss. 90.
7. Conferred title in 1718 upon the death of his father, Thomas; Marquis of Malmesbury and Catherlogh, Earl of Rathfarnham, Viscount Winchendon, and Baron Trim, received Order of Garter and title of Duke of Northumberland from Old Pretender about 1726.
8. AQC vol. xi, (1898). p 86. Cf.: Philip, Duke of Wharton, Memoirs of the Life of, by an Impartial Hand, London, 1731; Select and Authentic Pieces, written by, Boulogne [Lond.] Printed by J. Wolfe, at the Duke of Wharton’s Head, 1731.
9. AQC vol. xii, p. 106.
10. "...one of only three known jewels extant." Freemasonry Today Winter 2003 Issue 27, p. 46.
11. The Pocket History of Freemasonry, Fred L. Pick, G. Norman Knight. London : Frederick Muller Ltd., 1953. p. 87