Spalding Gentlemen's Society
For the antiquarian society, publishers of Aberdeen, see
Spalding Club.
The Spalding Gentlemen's Society (or "The Gentlemen's Club at Spalding"), a learned society of the United Kingdom, was founded in 1710 by Maurice Johnson, (1688–1755), of Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, and is still active.
History
The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society started in 1710 with informal meetings of a few gentlemen at a local coffee house in Spalding called 'Youngers'. Many gentlemen's clubs formed in this way. They talked about local antiquities and discussed the popular London newspaper The Tatler. In 1712 the society was organised in more formal way as a Society of Gentlemen, for the supporting of mutual benevolence, and their improvement in the liberal sciences and in polite learning. Officers were appointed and minutes were kept. Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch (1695–1751), became Patron of the Society in 1732.
Records of the society's functions were issued as The Correspondence of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, 1710-1761 and Minute-Books of The Spalding Gentlemen's Society, 1712-1755. Later works appear in catalogues as produced by "Spalding Gentleman's Society" in 1892, 1893.[1]
Notable members
Noteworthy and early members of the 'Gentlemen's Society at Spalding' include,
- Sir Isaac Newton. Stukeley's unpublished memoir of Newton mentions his joining the society, and making a substantial donation of books.[2]
- Dr. William Stukeley
- Sir Hans Sloane, President of the Royal Society, whose museum and library formed the nucleus of the British Museum
- "Honest Tom" Martin, antiquary
- Alexander Pope, the poet
- Alexander Gordon, antiquary[3]
- Sir Joseph Banks
- Sir George Gilbert Scott
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- George Vertue, the engraver
- Joseph Ayloffe, antiquary[4]
- John Anstis, F.R.S. Garter King of Arms
- John Gay, the poet
- Rev. Richard Bentley, D.D.
- Captain John Perry, the engineer
- Pishey Thompson, the historian of Boston
- Andrew Michael Ramsay
- Lord Curzon of Kedleston
- Lord Peckover of Wisbech
- Lord Ancaster, the Society’s Patron from 1960 to 1983
References
- ^ "1710 - Spalding - Spalding Gentlemen's Society". History of Scholarly Societies. University of Waterloo. http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/society/history/1710sgs.html. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
- ^ Stukeley, William (2010). Rob Iliffe, Scott Mandelbrote,. ed. Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life. William Stukeley 1752. (AHRC Newton Papers Project: transcipt ed.). University of Sussex: The Newton Project. http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001.
- ^ Brown, Iain Gordon, "Gordon, Alexander", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/11021
- ^ "Ayloffe, Joseph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- Spalding Gentlemen’s Society
- Dorothy Mary Owen, S W Woodward, The minute-books of The Spalding Gentlemen's Society, 1712-1755, Lincoln Record Society, 1981
External links