Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse
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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.
An Irish peer, he was born at Twickenham, Middlesex, the son of Richard Parsons, 1st Viscount Rosse (c. 1657-1703) and Elizabeth Hamilton, niece of Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough. His family had settled at New Ross, County Wexford 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.
Freemason and Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland
In 1725, he was elected the Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, a post he held for the next six years.[1]
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 (and nihilist[citation needed]), rebelling against the norms of the day[citation needed]. 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's book[citation needed], only two copies of which exist to this day.
