. The Arts Club and its members . in 1714. He was one otthe Directors of the South Sea Company, was involved in the ruin ofthat speculation, and having been held responsible for the misappro-priation of large sums of money was expelled from the House ofCommons, committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and hishouse was sold. The freehold was for several generations the property of theDashwood family of West Wycombe Park, Bucks. Francis Dashwood,a junior member of an old West Country stock, was a prosperousTurkey merchant and an alderman of the City of London. His sonFrancis, Member of
. The Arts Club and its members . in 1714. He was one otthe Directors of the South Sea Company, was involved in the ruin ofthat speculation, and having been held responsible for the misappro-priation of large sums of money was expelled from the House ofCommons, committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and hishouse was sold. The freehold was for several generations the property of theDashwood family of West Wycombe Park, Bucks. Francis Dashwood,a junior member of an old West Country stock, was a prosperousTurkey merchant and an alderman of the City of London. His sonFrancis, Member of Parliament for Winchelsea, was created a baronetin 1707. His successor. Sir Francis, was notorious as one of the mostdissipated rakes about town, and is mentioned as such in HoraceWalpolcs letters. He founded The Hell-Fire Club in 1742, whichmet at the Abbey of Medmenham, situated on the banks of theThames between Marlow and Henley, where the Rabelaisian mottoof the club, ^^ Fay, ce que voudras, may still be seen over the door- 6. 2 NO. 17 HANOVER SQUARE FROM 171R TO 1863 7 way. The Franciscans, as they styled themselves in honour of theirfounder, included Charles Churchill, the author of the Rosciad, JohnWilkes, Bubb Doddingfton, afterwards created Lord Melcombe, LordSandwich, Paul Whitehead, and others, and rumour attributed to themorgies of dissipation, obscenity, profanity, and sacrilege which wereprobably exaggerated in consequence of the mystery which surroundedthem. To counterbalance these little eccentricities Sir Francis hadgenerous qualities, and it is to his credit that he was one of the fewdefenders of the unfortunate Admiral Byng, and moved to petition theKing for a reprieve of the sentence of death to which the Admiral hadbeen condemned by the court martial held at Portsmouth for nothaving done all in his power to relieve St. Philips and to attack theFrench fleet. Soon after his accession the young King, George III, had sum-marily dismissed the Newcastle and Chath
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectarts, bookyear1920
