Spalding Gentlemen's Society


The Spalding Gentlemen's Society is a learned society based in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, concerned with cultural, scientific and antiquarian subjects. It is Britain's oldest surviving provincial learned society, having been founded in 1710 by Maurice Johnson of Ayscoughfee Hall, and remained active to the present day. Membership is open to anyone aged 18 or over: the term "gentlemen" in the title is historical: there is no discrimination between men and women.
The Society's museum in Broad Street, Spalding, opened in 1911; additions to the building were made in 1925 and in 1960. The carved outside panels were by Jules Tuerlinckx of Malines, a Belgian refugee in the First World War.

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 around that time. They talked about local antiquities and discussed the popular London newspaper The Tatler. In 1712 the society was organised in a 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, became Patron in 1732.
Records of the society's earliest activities have been published by the Lincoln Record Society 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 and 1893.

Notable members

Noteworthy and early members of the "Gentlemen's Society at Spalding" include: