The aristocrat who traded religious austerity for a parody of monastic life

Science · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Francis Dashwood was a man of extreme contradictions. A high-ranking politician and Fellow of the Royal Society, he also founded a secret society that mocked Catholic monasticism through debauchery. He spent his life oscillating between the halls of Parliament and a

Following a 1731 European tour where he judged monastic life as opposing 'Nature and Reason', Dashwood intended to establish a 'burlesque Institution'. He sought to swap the 'austerities and abstemiousness' of actual monks for 'convivial gaiety, unrestrained hilarity, and social felicity'. The organisation was renamed 'Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe'. They later chose to identify as the 'Monks of Medmenham'. They gathered at Medmenham Abbey, a Cistercian site leased by Dashwood. The members—including high-profile figures like Benjamin Franklin, the Duke of Queensberry, and the Earl of Bute—engaged in what contemporary observers described as "rigorously pagan" practices. They wore ritual clothing, addressed each other as "Brothers," and performed obscene parodies of Christian rites, often involving heavy drinking and "wenching."

The social dynamics were complex. While Dashwood was a "rake" whose licentiousness was said to exceed any model since Charles II, he was also a serious intellectual and political figure. He was a leading light of the Society of Dilettanti, a dining club for those with an appreciation of classical art, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1746. Occupying the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1762 and 1763, he faced ridicule for a budget address that displayed a notable absence of fiscal expertise.

Dashwood’s legacy is one of profound moral hypocrisy. He erected a church on a hill near his abbey, a move critics called disingenuous. He also famously joined John Montagu in leveling obscenity charges against the poet John Wilkes for a pornographic poem, despite his own leadership of a club that celebrated such behaviors. He died in 1781, buried in a mausoleum he built at his family home.

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