Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse (1702 – 21 June 1741), Freemason and a founder-member of the Hell-Fire Club, 2nd Viscount Rosse of Bellamont co. Dublin, Baron Oxmantown, 3rd baronet.

Early life

An Irish peer, he was born at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

, Middlesex, the son of Richard Parsons, 1st Viscount Rosse (-1703) and Elizabeth Hamilton, niece of

Sarah Jennings Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Princess of Mindelheim, Countess of Nellenburg (née Jenyns, spelt Jennings in most modern references; 5 June 1660 Old Style and New Style dates, (Old Style) – 18 October 1744), was an English cou ...

, Duchess of Marlborough. His family had settled at

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Ireland. It is located on the River Barrow, near the border with County Kilkenny, and is around northeast of Waterford. In 2016 it had a population of 8,040 people, making it the ...

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

at the beginning of the 17th century. The spelling Rosse distinguishes this Irish family from a Scottish title, Ross.

Career

Upon the death of his father in 1703, he succeeded as the second Viscount Rosse. On 16 June 1718, he was created the

Earl of Rosse Earl of Rosse is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, both times for the Parsons family. "Rosse" refers to New Ross in County Wexford. History The Parsons were originally an English family from Dishworth (Disewort ...

Freemason and Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland

In 1725, he was elected the Grandmaster of the

Grand Lodge of Ireland The Grand Lodge of Ireland is the second most senior Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the world, and the oldest in continuous existence. Since no specific record of its foundation exists, 1725 is the year celebrated in Grand Lodge anniversaries, as ...

, a post he held for the next six years. All official records of the Grand Lodge of Ireland prior to 1760, and all minute books prior to 1780, have been lost. While Rosse is the first recorded Grand Master of Ireland, the belief that he was Grand Master in 1723 and again in 1730 is from newspaper accounts of the day.

The Hell-Fire Club

A founder member of the Hell-Fire Club, Parsons was a notable

Libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

(and

nihilist Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

), rebelling against the norms of the day. He wrote the book '' Dionysus Rising'' after a trip to Egypt where he claimed to have found

Dionysian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fr ...

scrolls looted from the

Great Library of Alexandria The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, th ...

. After writing his book he founded the Sacred Sect of Dionysus. An offshoot of freemasonry called the Revived Order of Dionysus is in existence in New Orleans, USA, and split due to a belief that Freemasonry is descendant from a pre-Christian cult called

Dionysiac Architects The cult of Dionysus was strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni, and its characteristic symbols were the bull, the serpent, tigers/leopards, ivy, and wine. The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus, ...

. They were inspired by Richard Parsons's book, only two copies of which exist to this day.

Personal life

On 25 June 1714, he married Mary Paulet, the eldest daughter of

Lord William Powlett Lord William Powlett (baptized 18 August 1666 – 25 September 1729) was an English Member of Parliament. He was the younger son of Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, and his second wife, Mary Scrope. Career Lord William held a number of of ...

and a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Bolton and the marquis de Montpouillon. They were the parents of two sons and a daughter: *

Richard Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

(1716–1764), who died without issue. After his first wife's death on 15 August 1718, he married Frances Claxton. Among her siblings were sisters Lucy, the wife of James Johnston

Secretary of State, Scotland The Secretary of Scotland or Lord Secretary was a senior post in the Government of Scotland, government of the Kingdom of Scotland. The office appeared in the 14th century (or earlier) when it was combined with that of Keeper of the Privy Seal o ...

, and Mary, wife of Thomas Carter. Lord Rosse died on 21 June 1741 at his home in Molesworth Street Dublin in the parish of St Anne. On his deathbed he received a letter from the vicar of St Anne, the dean of Kilmore "to remind him of his past life, the particulars of which he mentioned, such as profligacy, gaming, drinking, rioting, turning day into night, blaspheming his Maker, and, in short, all manner of wickedness; and exhorting him in the tenderest manner to employ the few moments that remained to him, in penitently confessing his manifold transgressions, and soliciting his pardon from an offended Deity, before whom he was shortly to appear." Parsons ordered the letter, addressed only to My Lord, to be put into a fresh cover and carried by the dean's own servant to an unusually pious gentleman, the

Earl of Kildare Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

. On reading it the very angry Kildare sent the letter to

John Hoadly John Hoadly (27 September 1678 - 19 July 1746) was an Anglican divine in the Church of Ireland. He served as Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1727 to 1730), as Archbishop of Dublin (1730 to 1742), and as Archbishop of Armagh from 1742 until his d ...

, Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of Ireland, who immediately summoned the dean for his explanation. By the time it was understood what had been done, Parsons was dead.

John Thomas Gilbert Sir John Thomas Gilbert, LLD, FSA, RIA (born 23 January 1829, Dublin - died 23 May 1898, Dublin) was an Irish archivist, antiquarian and historian. Life John Thomas Gilbert was the second son of John Gilbert, an English Protestant, who was Por ...

''Molesworth Street. A history of the city of Dublin'' Volume III. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

. His widow Frances married

Viscount Jocelyn A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

before her death in 1772.

Legacy

As his sons died without issue, the earldom became extinct in 1764. However, there was a second creation of the title Parsons, Earl of Rosse in 1806 for the descendants of a junior branch which had settled at Birr, King’s County in the early 17th century instead of

. Today's Parsons of Birr Castle are not his direct descendants of the original earl.

References

External links

Rosse Papers

Dionysus Rising
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosse, Richard Parsons, 1st Earl Of 1702 births 1741 deaths Irish Freemasons Earls of Rosse (1718 creation)