Antient Noble Order of the Gormogons

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Philip, Duke of Wharton

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The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by ye Gormagons.1

MASONIC HISTORY
ANTI-MASONRY INDEX

The Antient Noble Order of the Gormogons was a short-lived

eighteenth century society; leaving no records or accomplishments
to indicate its true goal and purpose. From the few published
advertisements and notices, it would appear that its sole objective
was to hold up Freemasonry to ridicule.
The Gormogons are first heard of in a notice published in the London
Daily Post for September 3, 1724:
" Whereas the truly ANTIENT NOBLE ORDER of the
Gormogons, instituted by Chin-Qua Ky-Po, the first
Emperor of China (according to their account), many
thousand years before Adam, and of which the great
philosopher Confucious was Oecumenicae Volgee, has
lately been brought into England by a Mandarin, and he
having admitted several Gentlemen of Honour into the
mystery of that most illustrious order, they have
determined to hold a Chapter at the Castle Tavern in Fleet
Street, at the particular request of several persons of
quality. This is to inform the public, that there will be no
drawn sword at the Door, nor Ladder in a dark Room, nor
will any Mason be reciev'd as a member till he has
renounced his Novel Order and been properly degraded.
N.B. The Grand Mogul, the Czar of Muscovy, and Prince
Tochmas are entr'd into this Hon. Society ; but it has been
refused to the Rebel Meriweys, to his great Mortification.
The Mandarin will shortly set out for Rome, having a
particular Commission to make a Present of the Antient
Order to his Holiness, and it is believ'd the whole Sacred

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College of Cardinals will commence Gormogons. Notice will

be given in the Gazette the Day the Chapter will be held.2
Letters appeared in the Plain Dealer for Monday, September 14, 1724
(No. 51) attacking Freemasonry and referring to the Gormogons; and
then in the British Journal for December 12, 1724: "We hear that a
Peer of the first Rank, a noted Member of the Society of Free-Masons,
hath suffered himself to be degraded as a member of that Society, and
his Leather Apron and Gloves to be burnt, and thereupon enter'd
himself as a Member of the Society of Gormogons, at the CastleTavern in Fleet Street." This is presumed to be a reference to Philip,
Duke of Wharton.
Little is heard again of the Gormogons until the editions of the Daily
Journal for October 26 and 28, 1728: "By command of the Vol-Gi. A
General Chapter of the Most August and Ancient Order, GOR-MO-GON,
will be held at the Castle Tavern in Fleet Street, on Saturday, the 31st
Inst., to commence at 12 o'clock ; of which the several Graduates and
Licentiates are to take Notice, and give their Attendance." The same
year a letter by Wharton appeared in Mr. Mists Journal lampooning
the British royal court in a similar Persian style as the Gormogon
literature of 1724.
Nichols and Stevens, editors of Hogarths Works(1810) claim that the
order was frequently advertised between October 1728 and 1730 but
no records remain extant. The Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer for
April 18, 1730 stated that John Dennis, poet, political writer and critic,
had renounced the Gormogons and joined the Freemasons.
Wharton died on May 31, 1731, and the Gormogons were not heard
from again. There is no evidence of any other members other than
Wharton and Dennis. Dennis was a Whig so his alleged membership
was probably a hoax. Unlike the Scald- Miserables4 , and contrary to
Hogarths print, the Gorgomons never actually held public processions.
The fullest account of the Gormogons is given in the letters of Verus
Commodus, published in an appendix to the second edition of The
Grand Mystery of the Freemasons Discover'd, (28 October, 1724).
There is some evidence that the Gormogons, in some fashion, lingered
on:
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.

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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 .

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.
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

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convent in Catalonia, May 31, 1731.9 .

Silver collar jewel, reverse shows

sun radiating sixteen alternating
straight and wavy lines.10 .

His masonic history is equally colourful.

While there is some question if he ever
served as Master of his lodge the Lodge at the Kings Arms, near St.
Pauls 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.
Hogarths print has been tentatively dated to December 1724. The engraving appeared in
three states: the first without an artists 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 Whartons 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
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