FANNY MURRAY : THE PRIVATE CLUB OF MEDMENHAM ABBEY

The same man who had devised the Divan Club, which had a brief existence, Sir Frances Dashwood, decided to form another club, this one that seemed to go without a permanent location for a while, which he called Order of Saint Frances.  The use of a saintly name was subterfuge or irony. Medmenham Abbey, in the countryside of Buckinghamshire, became the location where lewd activities were indulged. His faux 'monks' were to be entertained. It was a gothic retreat for members. "Nuns" were also supposed to live there, for the mutual enjoyment. By the summer of 1752 all was as he had planned. He wished to turn Christianity around and so the place was thought to be about witchcraft and Satanism, Masonry and worse- human sacrifice. Rumors of what went on there were probably exaggerated - even greatly so - but even made it into print in the sexual undergrounds. Rumors were that prostitutes were being sent to serve as 'nuns' from some of London's finest brothels. Other rumors were that the wives of the peerage - Ladies - made use of the place. The names of female participants were supposed to be held secret by the males who invited them. However, the names of famous known prostitutes came up and Fanny Murray was one of them. That said, Dashwood might also have invited those who were simply married and having affairs to use the place for meet ups. He might have simply found a location he could rent that went with his personal fantasy of badness.

It is likely that Fanny Murray attended a meeting or many in the years of 1752-1754.  If so she would have been called by another name, as a matter of ceremony perhaps since her visage was well known, and probably worn the garment of a nun as required of this mockery of Christian morals. As the most popular among the women at that time, she might have lead the revelries. Musical instruments and board games were provided, I suppose if you were shy or bored.

By the summer of 1854. however, Fanny was nearing the end of her days as a Courtesan. About this same time her eight year relationship with Sir Richard Atkins was ending too. And be it all true of not, the idea that she would have ended her last days as a Courtesan at parties at Medmenham Abbey, and far from the role of being the Mistress of one man, could have meant she was in peril.

This was the end of the Courtesan career of a decade in which Fanny Murray lived out her popularity. As author Barbara White suggested, her option would have been to go back into the rougher aspects of prostitution, become the madman of a bawdy house herself, or perhaps publish her memoirs and blackmail the men she intended to portray in them for more money. Other women in her situation had done that, for better or worse.

(Notes re pages 50-51-52-53-54)

And if she had not participated?  Well, this is the dark side of celebrity, when the marketing and public relations suffer and do not serve. 

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