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during his offi ce revealed a Grand Master who was far
The ‘Wicked Lord’ from ‘Wicked’. 7

Byron’s great uncle, the eccentric fi fth Lord Byron, had Whymper was indeed sympathetic to Byron’s Grand
been Grand Master of the ‘Premier’ or ‘Modern’ Grand Mastership, and dismissed Gould’s view of the
k Lodge from 1747-51, and it may have been through him ‘Wicked Lord’, Gould having written that ‘the aff airs
that the poet developed a familiarity with the themes of the Society were much neglected, and to this period
e of Freemasonry. As we shall see, Byron mentioned of misrule, aggravated by the summary erasure of
h Freemasonry in his poetry, and commonly celebrated numerous lodges, we must look, I think, for the cause of
, classical architecture in his work, discussing the many that organized rebellion against authority, resulting in
e Temples of antiquity. Byron, who had been on the Grand the great Schism.' Gould clearly placing the blame for
Tour, continuously praised the lost knowledge of the the formation of the ‘Antients’ with Byron. 8
, ancient world, and in his epic poem Childe Harold’s
Whymper put forward that Byron’s image was certainly
, Pilgrimage, he attacked Lord Elgin for his plunder of tainted after his conviction of manslaughter, leading to
t the Parthenon, and expressed the hidden mysteries held
within the classical Temples: his ‘unpopularity’ being ‘improperly seized upon to
9
e ‘Here let me sit upon this massy stone, account for the dissensions in the Craft…’
w The marble column’s yet unshaken base! Lord Byron, Don Juan, the Carbonari
l Here, son of Saturn! Was thy favourite throne:
y Mightiest of many such! Hence let me trace and Revolution
c The latent grandeur of thy dwelling-place. Byron was certainly aware of Freemasonry, though he
It may not be: nor even can Fancy’s eye
Restore what Time hath labour’d to deface. mentioned it only twice in his epic poem Don Juan. He
t Yet these proud pillars claim no passing sigh; fi rst commented on the aristocratic networking aspects
a Unmoved the Moslem sits, the light Greek carols by.' 5 of the Craft in Canto XIII, Verse XXIV:
‘And thus acquaintance grew at noble routs
Byron’s great uncle, the ‘Wicked Lord’, hosted regular And diplomatic dinners or at other –
ritualistic weekend parties on his estate Newstead Abbey, For Juan stood well both with Ins and Outs,
in a somewhat similar fashion to Sir Francis Dashwood’s As in Freemasonry a higher brother.
Hell Fire and Dilettanti meetings at West Wycombe. The Upon his talent Henry had no doubts;
‘Wicked Lord’ was a rather clubbable gentleman, being His manner showed him sprung from a higher mother,
involved in an aristocratic dining club which met in the And all men like to show their hospitality,
Star and Garter Tavern in London. However, true to his To him whose breeding matched with this quality.’ 10
wild nature, he killed his neighbor William Chaworth
during an argument, who was also a fellow member of Byron seemed to be referring to the hierarchical
his club, resulting in a murder trial in the House of Lords system of Freemasonry, which at Grand Lodge level, was
in 1765. He was eventually found guilty of manslaughter dominated by the gentry and led by certain charismatic
and, after the payment of a fi ne, he was a free man, though aristocrats, Don Juan being portrayed as moving in well-
as a result of the scandal became a recluse, living in debt connected and well-bred circles.
l with his mistress in the decaying Gothic splendor of He then touched upon the Craft once more in Canto XIV,
6.
c Newstead Abbey. He certainly had a profound infl uence Verse XXII of the same poem, commenting on the more
e on his heir, the inheritance of the Gothic Abbey supplying mysterious and secretive aspects of Freemasonry:
y a haunting and melancholy inspiration to the poet. ‘And therefore what I throw off is ideal -
n Lowered, leavened like a history of Freemasons
y According to H.J. Whymper writing in AQC, the Which bears the same relation to the real,
e ‘Wicked Lord’ had been a popular and a somewhat As Captain Parry’s voyage may do to “Jason’s.”
, charismatic Grand Master, and his absence during six out The Grand Arcanum’s not for men to see all;
y of ten Grand Lodge meetings was attributed to being on My music has some mystic diapasons;
p business out of the country. During his term as Grand And there is much which could not be appreciated
a Master he showed none of the temper or eccentricity In any manner by the uninitiated’ 11
g of his later years, and the minutes of the Grand Lodge
4 See John William Polidori, The Vampyre, (London: Sherwood, Neely and Jones, 1819). Acyronic’ hero. See also Peter L. Thorslev, The Byronic
Her: Types and Prototypes, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1962).
5 George Gordon Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, (London: Charles Griffi n & Co., 1866), p.54.
6 The Trial of William Lord Byron For The Murder of William Chaworth Esq; Before The House of Peers in Westminster Hall, in Full Parliament.
London, 1765. Newstead Abbey Archives, reference NA1051.
7 See H.J. Whymper ‘Lord Byron G.M.’ AQC, Vol.VI, (1893), pp.17-20.
8 Ibid., p.17
9 Ibid., p.20.
10 Leslie A. Marchand, (ed.), Don Juan by Lord Byron, Canto XIII, Stanza XXIV, (Boston: Houghton Miffl in Company, 1958), p.361
11 Ibid, Canto XIV, Stanza XXII, p.385.