Male Masturbation Clubs aren’t new. Meet the Beggar’s Benison

I’ve read several stories in the past few years marveling at the rise of the male masturbation club, written by authors surprised by the openness and eagerness of guys to seek out masculine social groups for the enjoyment of their sexuality. Most of the time the authors are curious onlookers who seem oblivious to the notion of male-male sexual enjoyment without sexual labels. Thankfully they’re rarely mocking or ignorant, but there is certainly an undertow of giggling incredulity.

While some I have read have treated the subject fairly and delve deeper than the superficial, all but one frame it as a modern phenomena, something created by the Internet and exacerbated by a shifting sexual demand among men. They seem to believe this is an entirely new concept.

This characterization couldn’t be further from the truth.

One or two authors of such click-bait pieces are willing to delve as far back as the ’80s, when it’s suggested the AIDS pandemic forced men into seeking alternative sexual activities which greatly reduced the risk of infection. Even this suggestion, while perhaps containing more than a kernel of truth, underestimates the long history of the male masturbation club.

We could go all the way back to the Romans and Greeks if we really wanted to explore the history of men engaging in shared sexual enjoyment, and doing so without labels. We know that both Roman and Greek society didn’t frown upon men sharing their sexual lives with each other and there are countless artistic depictions of various male activities, including shared masturbation. It’s hard to imagine that such a society wouldn’t have social settings and designated social clubs purely for the enjoyment of male masturbation with each other.

It could be argued that our own bathhouses and men’s saunas today wouldn’t exist were it not for the Romans and Greeks, and their penchant for male sexual sharing.

We don’t need to reach so far back for the the story of The Beggar’s Benison, however.

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Birth of The Beggar’s Benison

The Beggar’s Benison (full name ‘The Most Ancient and Most Puissant Order of the Beggar’s Benison and Merryland, Anstruther’) was an all-male social club believed to have begun in 1732 in the Scottish town of Anstruther, although it’s likely it wasn’t borne of itself without any precursor. It’s probable the founders already had an informal gathering on which to base the creation of the formal club but I’ve seen no information to ascertain any events before its official inception.

The name derives from a tale of King James V, traveling in disguise and having difficulty crossing a small river. A local beggar woman carried him across the river and he repaid her with a gold sovereign. In appreciation she exclaimed:

“May your purse ne’er be toom (empty)
And your horn aye (always) in bloom”

The club motto later became:

“May prick nor purse ne’er fail you”

‘Benison’ translates to ‘Blessing’

Despite what some might think of 18th Century England and Scotland, sex wasn’t really taboo. Yes, a lot of things were considered criminal and men did indeed hide their proclivities, but probably not more so than modern times. While The Beggar’s Benison was no doubt a more formal environment catering to a very interesting cross-section of society, there were venues for all sorts of sexual interests at the time. Taverns for men seeking sex with men existed, cross-dressing and gender play venues weren’t uncommon, and of course there was a brothel on every other corner in the most populous of areas. It wasn’t until an oppressive smog of the Victorian age smothered sexual freedom that such places became unfashionable and their clients began to hide their interests behind closed doors.

Some were already behind closed doors.

The Beggar’s Benison wasn’t the only club of its kind outside of the general publicly accessible venues. The Hellfire Club is perhaps the most famous. Although the most notorious and often written about club associated to the name was founded by Sir Francis Dashwood around 1749 there were numerous others believed to have been connected to it, from 1718 until 1766, across England and Ireland.

A lot of claims have been made about these clubs but there is little information to indicate what their purpose was other than to allow members of high society to discuss politics, philosophy and the arts, while mocking religion. Those in these clubs could be characterized as rebellious and revolutionary in their thinking. They rejected notions of religious morality and scoffed at socially acceptable norms with an eager delight. It’s fair to say that the various clubs would have had different styles and it’s likely some did have an element of sexuality, but none of them seem to match what we know about The Beggar’s Benison.

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The Members

Unlike other secretive clubs of the time The Beggar’s Benison left behind artifacts and documents which leave far less to the imagination.

While groups like the Hellfire Club are renowned for their high society members (allegedly including at least one American President) The Beggar’s Benison is believed to have initiated men from various echelons of society.

Having begun in what is still a picturesque fishing village on the East coast of Scotland, up the coast from Edinburgh and on the other side of the Firth of Forth, such a club wouldn’t have attracted only the aristocratic in the way we view clubs like Hellfire with more metropolitan roots. The membership was seemingly varied to include fishermen, merchants, students, churchmen and aristocrats. It appears that class and status were almost entirely irrelevant, as long as a man had an interest in the hedonistic and intellectual they were welcomed.

It’s not known if all the members of the club were given a gilt token but several are known to exist to this day with a few in the collection of the British Museum. It’s understood that these were worn and displayed by members of the club for meetings and perhaps used in a similar way to how we view the BuddyBate buttons and stickers today.

Interestingly, while doing a little research for this article I stumbled across a second photo of the tokens given to club members and I believe this shows how they evolved over time.

One of the most interesting things about this second image, besides the way their production was improved, is the number on the front.

Articles I have read mention evidence of perhaps 500 members, but this is over some considerable time and it’s likely others may not be recorded. The above image seems to support this idea. The number 5826 appears on the one above, and it’s hard to imagine that this could be anything other than a membership number.

Given that the club had links to the University of St Andrews via member Hugh Cleghorn (professor of civil history), and it’s where the surviving relics of the club (and those of the associated Wig Club, an attempted offshoot) are held to this day, I believe several students of the time were likely members alongside notable characters such as Robert Hamilton of Kilbrackmont (local landowner), John McNachtane (customs officer) and Thomas Erskine, 9th Earl of Kellie (Merchant).

With so many notable members, having traveled, and evidence of attempts to open branches of the club elsewhere, it seems increasingly likely that the club could indeed have had more than 5,000 members.

There’s more to say on the links to the University of St Andrews a little later, and the efforts of the club to expand.

The code members were required to abide by was quite modern in thinking. “Fair trade and legal entry” was perhaps the most prominent sentiment, once again suggesting that the club wasn’t solely for the wealthy elites. However, this statement was delivered in conjunction with the suggestion that the club was not a place to engage in “a preposterous and Contraband Trade too frequently practiced.”

Would it be too prosperous for me to suggest that this is directly comparable to the modern male-masturbation club rule of “no lips below the hips”? This suggests that the men viewed themselves in a similar way to those in male masturbation clubs today. They were clear of the limits which differentiated them from the “molly-house”, where homosexual men would meet.

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Oh, What fun they had

Now we get down to the nitty-gritty.

While your masturbation club might have a couple of fun rituals or traditions they’re likely not as formal as those practiced by The Beggar’s Benison.

Their activities are quite detailed in historical documents and with the associated relics of the era they create a colorful picture.

Initiation ceremonies were especially interesting and we have to wonder exactly what new arrivals must have thought while they were taken into a closet to be prepared by the Recorder and two ‘helpers’. The fresh inductee (or several) were made hard by these ‘helpers’ to prepare them for the ritual.

Given that instances of female guests were apparently routinely noted and their duties limited to posing for inspiration and admiration it’s fair to assume the ‘helpers’ were members of the club itself.

It could merely be that the new arrival was given a hand job in the closet, or they could be describing an edging session. Because of the matter-of-fact style of the reporting it’s hard to tell, but I would be surprised if this was considered a laborious task with no fun intended.

Once hard the new arrival was presented to the members while a horn was blown four times to accompany them to the “Testing Platter“. The inductee would place their hard cock on the platter and the men of the club would approach in twos (presumably one on each side) and tap their own hard cock against the member of the new arrival.

The Testing Platter is a shallow metal dish carefully engraved as seen above. “The way of a man with a maid” arches over the central design of an erect penis and vagina, with the penis adorned with a purse in depiction of the motto “May prick nor purse ne’er fail you”.

Yes, if you’re imagining a kind of momentary “jousting” or “frotting” that’s exactly what they appear to be describing.

Documents suggest they regularly had new members to initiate and it seems likely that each meeting involved at least one new arrival and the associated ceremony.

Once a new arrival was welcomed with a cock-to-cock tap from everyone assembled the men would wank and shoot their loads into the platter.

“18 assembled, and Frigged [wanked, jacked off etc] upon the Test Platter. The origin and performance were discussed. The Platter was filled with Semen, each Knight at an average did not ‘benevolent’ [donate] quite a horn spoonful.”

It sounds formal, but these diligent notes are brief and events would no doubt have been far more colorful and fun than this quick entry can explain. I imagine there was a lot to discuss while the men were enjoying themselves.

If you’ve been to a modern day masturbation club with other men you’ll understand how this could almost be written about any of your meetings, but it misses out the friendly hands, the masculine comparisons, the celebratory cheers as cum shoots off or the laughter created by the occasional unexpected spurt in a wayward direction.

I think it’s important (and exciting) to remember that when you have eighteen men all jacking off together and aiming for a target some of them are going to fire off more spectacularly than others. It is a shame that we miss out on the historical documentation of those moments of surprise or appreciation.

The description is almost scientific, customary for the time, but the events were undoubtedly far more relaxed and raucous with various moments of interest that we might never know of, unless more documentation is discovered in an attic.

Once members had delivered their loads to the platter a celebratory drink was called for, involving the cheeky ‘Prick Glass’. These phallic drinking vessels are a work of art themselves. Port was poured into the top and members would drink from the tip, with novices unaware of the prank holes causing it to spurt out over them. Presumably experienced members would know of the trick and drink successfully while watching their new arrivals soaking themselves.

Aside from the initiation rituals it’s understood that the enjoyment of pornography was common among members. When you consider that entertainment was limited to live sex shows, strippers, horny poetry and erotic art smuggled from around the world it’s no wonder the men found cause to get together to enjoy them. It’s economical if nothing else. It’s kind of like sharing porn magazines with your friends, I suppose. Many of us did so, and it appears The Beggar’s Benison were similarly inclined.

On occasion the group would hire local ladies to pose, and there’s a suggestion even wives or girlfriends were invited. While at least one person writing about this subject seems to imply this is misogynistic in nature the men of the club appear quite respectful. The ladies were not there against their own volition. It seems to me that these were professional ladies of the sexual arts and were treated with respect by the members who apparently didn’t masturbate in front of them.

Given that many of the the men had an appreciation for the arts, and the club is believed to have had its own collection of erotic art for members to enjoy, isn’t it likely that these live models were there to pose for the creation of more erotic art, in the same way many artists do today? It seems unlikely to me that men who would have a greater appreciation and skill in the artistic wouldn’t use that opportunity to create their own works.

I wonder if perhaps the artistic aspect is being ignored simply because these men also enjoyed a good circle jerk after.

Documents show that the men of the club enjoyed the arts, singing erotic songs, sharing the club’s cache of pornography, holding lectures to discuss and debate sexuality and anatomy.

They weren’t there merely to get their cocks out and have a good laugh watching each other cum, these men celebrated sexuality and engaged in intellectual pursuits together.

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Going International

Never underestimate the role trade plays in the spread of ideas and culture from shore to shore. The Beggar’s Benison included merchants, businessmen, traders and more, and they were meeting in a climate of political turmoil with England taxing and controlling trade in Scotland, leading to suggestions that the club was an avenue for tax evasion and smuggling operations.

As such, it’s perhaps not too surprising to know that other branches of The Beggar’s Benison were at least attempted in other locations. Much like the Freemasons opening chapters around the world, this group of masturbating men were endeavoring to bring their pleasurable fun to others by setting up satellite clubs elsewhere.

It is known that a chapter was opened in Edinburgh in 1766. An advertisement in a Manchester newspaper has been found showing that a meeting was organized there in 1773. A new club was planned for St. Petersburg, Russia, but it’s unknown if it ever held a meeting.

As far as I know only St. Petersburg is mentioned in club notes, so if we only know of others because of newspaper advertisements at the time it’s plausible that other clubs were attempted for which there is no modern record.

Given the membership badge depicted in the image further up the page and the presence of what appears to be a membership number at the bottom (5826), it is increasingly likely to me that other chapters were successful and there were indeed thousands of members.

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After the Beggar’s Benison

The club was formally dissolved in 1836. Member Matthew Foster Connolly, burgh clerk of Anstruther Easter and Wester, successfully retained some of the relics and documents and later passed these down to his son-in-law, Reverend Dr J.F.S. Gordon.

This is itself interesting, suggesting that the two men were quite open about the existence of the club and its history. Indeed, it seems those entrusted with artifacts and money after its end were less inclined to shy away from the club’s history and activities and donated funds to a girls’ school and funded the creation of a new social club at the University of St Andrews.

The latter is especially interesting as the artifacts from the club are also now housed there. According to at least one author the relics were received with embarrassment and even caused one member of staff to faint before they were locked away in a cupboard out of sight.

It might be indulgent to suggest it, but I like to imagine there’s a group of students at the University of St Andrews continuing the legacy of The Beggar’s Benison club in their own way. Far from it being just a horny thought that there might be students there meeting for the same kind of masculine enjoyment it would be a real shame if there isn’t a group continuing the traditions in a setting most appropriate for it.

Even if students there are completely unaware of the unusual history hidden away in the University archives others have tried to keep the platter full, so to speak.

One such person was Maxwell Robert Canch-Kavanagh, a British Army Captain, Fife Royal Garrison Artillery, who attempted to restart the club in 1921.

It’s unknown if the fifty-year-old military man managed to find others with which to start the club, but it seems unlikely he wouldn’t have enjoyed activities with others if he was as aware of the history of the club as he seems to have been. It would be strange if this gentleman had attempted to restart the club with no previous experience of the central purpose of their gatherings.

Is it possible the unattributed book ‘Records of the Most Ancient and Puissant Order of the Beggar’s Benison and Merryland, Anstruther‘ published anonymously in 1892 could have been produced by a twenty-one-year-old Maxwell Robert Canch-Kavanagh? They included the first known photographs of relics from the club but I don’t yet know if these are the same items in the care of the University of St Andrews. If they are, it’s likely an employee there with an interest in the history of the club compiled the book in an effort to share it with a wider audience, perhaps concerned that growing prudishness might lead to their vanishing. If they’re different relics, it’s possible the only other person we know to have held an interest might have had his own collection and later attempted to restart the club using them.

Could it be that Maxwell Robert Canch-Kavanagh was a relative or friend of someone who attended previous meetings?

The venue of the club still stands, looking out to sea from its spot on the short High Street of Anstruther, although the Smuggler’s Inn is apparently no longer an operating pub and hotel and has been closed for some time. It seems whoever owned it never embraced the unique history of the building, which is a great shame. I can only hope its next owner will be brave enough to recognize the unusual story of their property and not shy away from this chapter in its story, as people have done for far too long.

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Beyond The Beggar’s Benison

Our awareness of male masturbation clubs throughout history is sparse, but clearly the candle still burns independently. I would hazard a guess that 99% of you reading this had never heard of these men and their club before, and yet we’re all here for similar reasons, with similar intent.

The male physique photographers of the 1950s didn’t know of The Beggar’s Benison when they were gathering to admire and appreciate the male form, and often enjoying similar shared masturbation. The men of the “free love” generation of the ’60s and ’70s likely never knew of them either while getting together to trip on psychedelics and stroke their dicks. The guys of the ’80s and early ’90s, frightened by a new unknown disease, likely weren’t thinking about male masturbation clubs of centuries past when they were meeting to have a safer form of fun.

Likewise, all the millions upon millions of men who’ve met other curious masturbators at the urinals in rest rooms from London to New York to Tokyo in the near two centuries since The Beggar’s Benison last spilled over their platter probably knew nothing of the reverie they shared back then.

Today millions of men around the world meet in bars, clubs, living rooms, gyms, saunas, woodlands, campsites or anywhere else they might find communal pleasure, to share almost exactly what they enjoyed in their private club long before phones and the internet could bring so many together.

Things haven’t changed all that much. We’ve replaced their erotic poems and racy hand-drawn art with porn magazines and videos. Their ceremonial dick-tapping has become slippery sessions of cock-on-cock frottage. Their “Testing Platter” has become the modern cum shot contest over a towel or a coffee table.

Perhaps the only difference between the men of The Beggar’s Benison and us is that we have the freedom and opportunity to meet each other and enjoy our hobbies in ways they couldn’t have imagined.

I like to think that if I had the opportunity to sit down at a table with any of them and share a bottle of Port while explaining what BuddyBate is, they would approve.

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Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this post and would like to see more on this subject. If you know of any other historical examples we could write about I would love to hear about them.

I had a lot of fun researching the story of The Beggar’s Benison and would love to dig a little deeper into other historical groups.