MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES FAMOUS FREEMASONS

Philip, Duke of Wharton AQC vol. xii, p. 106. December, 1698 - May 31, 1731 A Jacobite sympathizer zealous for the Hanover Settlement and one-time president of one of perhaps three Hell-Fire Clubs in London, the second Marquis of Wharton was a colourful figure of the period. Evidence suggests that he was the instigator of the Gormogons. 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. His masonic history is equally colourful. Without having 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: No 50, the French Arms in St. Bernard Street, Madrid, from which a request for recognition was received on 17 April 1728 and granted on 27 March 1729, nearly six years after the Duke of Wharton’s term of office had come to an end. (Subsequently No. 1 of the Grand National Orient of Spain.) Grand Master: 1722-23 Grand Lodge of England Grand Master: 1729-31 c. Grand Lodge of France Source: AQC vol. xii (1899), p. 106. Cf. AQC vol 104 (1991) p. 36: "The Duke of Wharton served as Master of the lodge at the King’s Arms near St Paul’s." Also see: AQC vol. 86 (1973), p. 24-25. and vol xi (1898). p. 86.

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