"Hellfire club" was a term used to describe several exclusive clubs for high-society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th Century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood's Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe. Such clubs, rumor had it, served as the meeting places of "persons of quality" who wished to take part in what was socially perceived as immoral acts, and the members were often involved in politics. Neither the activities nor membership of the clubs are easy to ascertain. The clubs allegedly had distant ties to an elite society known only as "The Order of the Second Circle".
The first official Hellfire club was founded in London in 1718, by Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton, and a handful of other high-society friends. The most notorious club associated with the name was established in England by Francis Dashwood and met irregularly from around 1749 to around 1760, and possibly up until 1766. The term was closely associated with Brooks's, established in 1764. Other groups described as "Hellfire clubs" were set up throughout the 18th Century. Most of these arose in Ireland after Wharton's had been dissolved.
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Duke of Wharton's club
Lord Wharton was made a duke by George I and was a prominent politician with two separate lives: the first as a "man of letters" and the second as "a drunkard, a rioter, an infidel, and a rake". The members of Wharton's club are largely unknown. Mark Blackett-Ord assumes that members included Wharton's immediate friends: the Earl of Hillsborough, cousin; the Earl of Lichfield; and Sir Ed. O'Brien. Aside from these names, other members are not revealed.
At the time of the London gentlemen's club, when there was a meeting place for every interest, including poetry, philosophy, and politics,[ Wharton's Hellfire Club was, according to Blackett-Ord, a satirical "gentleman's club" which was known to ridicule religion, catching onto the contemporary trend in England of blasphemy. The club was more a joke, meant to shock the outside world, than a serious attack on religion or morality. The supposed president of this club was the Devil, although the members themselves did not worship demons or the Devil, but called themselves devils. Wharton's club admitted men and women as equals, unlike other clubs of the time. The club met on Sundays at several different locations around London. The Greyhound Tavern was one of the meeting places used regularly, but because women were not to be seen in taverns, the meetings were also held at members' houses and Wharton's riding club.
According to at least one source, their activities included mock religious ceremonies and partaking of meals featuring such dishes as "Holy Ghost Pie", "Breast of Venus", and "Devil's Loin", while drinking "Hell-fire punch". Members of the club supposedly came to meetings dressed as characters from the Bible.
Wharton's club came to an end in 1721 when George I, under the influence of Wharton's political enemies (in particular, Robert Walpole) put forward a Bill "against 'horrid impieties'" (or immorality), aimed at the Hellfire Club. Wharton's political opposition used his membership as a way to pit him against his political allies, thus removing him from Parliament. After his Club was disbanded, Wharton became a Freemason, and in 1722 he became the Grand Master of England.
