Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse
Encyclopedia
Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse (1702–1741), Freemason and a founder-member of the Hell-Fire Club, 2nd Viscount Rosse of Bellamont co. Dublin, Baron Oxmantown, 3rd baronet.
An Irish peer he was born at Twickenham, Middlesex, the son of Richard Parsons, 1st Viscount Rosse (c1657-1703) and Elizabeth Hamilton, niece of Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough. He was advanced to the earldom of Rosse on 16 June 1718. His family had settled at New Ross
New Ross
New Ross is a town located in southwest County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland. In 2006 it had a population of 7,709 people, making it the third largest town in the county after Wexford and Enniscorthy.-History:...
co. Wexford at the beginning of the 17th century. The spelling Rosse distinguishes this Irish family from a Scottish title, Ross.
He married, 25 June 1714, Mary Paulet
Lord William Powlett
Lord William Powlett was the younger son of Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton. He served as Member of Parliament for Winchester from 1689 until 1710, for Lymington from 1710 until 1715, and again for Winchester from 1715 until his death...
, granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Bolton
Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton
Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, PC , son of John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester. He became the sixth Marquess of Winchester on his father's death in 1675, was Member of Parliament for Winchester and then for Hampshire from 1660 to 1675...
and the marquis de Montpouillon. Their son was the 2nd and last Earl of Rosse (1716–1764) of that creation. They had no grandchildren. After her death on 15 August 1718 he married Frances Claxton who, as Parsons’ widow, married Viscount Jocelyn
Robert Jocelyn, 1st Viscount Jocelyn
Robert Jocelyn, 1st Viscount Jocelyn PC SL was an English-Irish politician and member of the Peerage of Ireland. He is best known for serving as Lord Chancellor of Ireland.-Early life:...
, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The office of 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 the Irish Parliament.-13th century:...
.
Freemason and Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland
In 1725, he was elected the GrandmasterGrand Master (Masonic)
In Freemasonry a Grand Master is the leader of the lodges within his Masonic jurisdiction. He presides over a Grand Lodge, and has certain rights in the constituent lodges that form his jurisdiction....
of the Grand Lodge of Ireland
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 the oldest reference to Grand Lodge of Ireland comes...
, 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 LibertineLibertine
A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those...
(and nihilist
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
), 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 scrolls looted from the Great Library of Alexandria. 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. They were inspired by Richard Parsons book, only two copies of which exist to this day.
Adieu and obituary
"The late Earl of Rosse was, in character and disposition, like the humorous Earl of RochesterJohn Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester , styled Viscount Wilmot between 1652 and 1658, was an English Libertine poet, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of much satirical and bawdy poetry. He was the toast of the Restoration court and a patron of the arts...
; he had an infinite fund of wit, great spirits, and a liberal heart; was fond of all the vices which the beau monde call pleasures, and by those means first impaired his fortune as much as he possibly could do; and finally, his health, beyond repair."
Parsons 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
Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare
Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare PC , known as Robert FitzGerald until 1707, was an Irish peer.-Background:...
. On reading it the very angry Kildare sent the letter to the Archbishop, Primate of Ireland
Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)
The Archbishop of Dublin is the title of the senior cleric who presides over the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland...
, who immediately summoned the dean for his explanation. By the time it was understood what had been done, Parsons was dead.
Today's Parsons of Birr Castle are not his direct descendants.
Earl of Rosse, new creation
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 CountyBirr
Birr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe....
in the early 17th century instead of New Ross
New Ross
New Ross is a town located in southwest County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland. In 2006 it had a population of 7,709 people, making it the third largest town in the county after Wexford and Enniscorthy.-History:...
.