IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0117 MS 557
Held at: Royal Society
Title: Royal Society: Secretaries Draft Minutes
Date(s): 1662-1761
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: Unknown
Name of creator(s): Royal Society
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The origins of the Royal Society lie in an "invisible college" of natural philosophers who began meeting in the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. Its official foundation date is 28 November 1660, when 12 of them met at Gresham College after a lecture by Christopher Wren, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and decided to found 'a Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning'. This group included Wren himself, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, and William, Viscount Brouncker. The Society was to meet weekly to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics. The first Curator of Experiments was Robert Hooke. It was Moray who first told the King, Charles II, of this venture and secured his approval and encouragement. At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'. The Society found accommodation at Gresham College and rapidly began to acquire a library (the first book was presented in 1661) and a repository or museum of specimens of scientific interest. After the Fire of 1666 it moved for some years to Arundel House, London home of the Dukes of Norfolk. It was not until 1710, under the Presidency of Isaac Newton, that the Society acquired its own home, two houses in Crane Court, off the Strand. In 1662 the Society was permitted by Royal Charter to publish and the first two books it produced were John Evelyn's Sylva and Micrographia by Robert Hooke. In 1665, the first issue of Philosophical Transactions was edited by Henry Oldenburg, the Society's Secretary. The Society took over publication some years later and Philosophical Transactions is now the oldest scientific journal in continuous publication. From the beginning, Fellows of the Society had to be elected, although the criteria for election were vague and the vast majority of the Fellowship were not professional scientists. In 1731 a new rule established that each candidate for election had to be proposed in writing and this written certificate signed by those who supported his candidature. These certificates survive and give a glimpse of both the reasons why Fellows were elected and the contacts between Fellows. The Society moved again in 1780 to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown, an arrangement made by Sir Joseph Banks who had become President in 1778 and was to remain so until his death in 1820. Banks was in favour of maintaining a mixture among the Fellowship of working scientists and wealthy amateurs who might become their patrons. This view grew less popular in the first half of the 19th century and in 1847 the Society decided that in future Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work. This new professional approach meant that the Society was no longer just a learned society but also de facto an academy of scientists. The Government recognised this in 1850 by giving a grant to the Society of £1,000 to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment. Therefore a Government Grant system was established and a close relationship began, which nonetheless still allowed the Society to maintain its autonomy, essential for scientific research. In 1857 the Society moved once more, to Burlington House in Piccadilly, with its staff of two. Over the next century the work and staff of the Society grew rapidly and soon outgrew this site. Therefore in 1967 the Society moved again to its present location on Carlton House Terrace with a staff which has now grown to over 120, all working to further the Royal Society's roles as independent scientific academy, learned society and funding body.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Secretaries Draft Minutes of Meetings of the Royal Society: these are the notes, more or less rough, which were written up to make the Journal Books. They fall into two sections;
1. 'Original Minutes' A series of guardbooks and packets of papers, 12 in number, containing original minutes of the Society's meetings. These minutes gradually approach nearer and nearer to the form and appearance of the Journal Book, and the last few volumes (from 15 onwards) are little different from the corresponding volumes of the Journal Book in their style.
2. 'Rough Minutes' A series of 5 notebooks containing rough minutes of meetings. It seems likely that these are the notes taken down by the Secretary at the meetings, which were later written out much more carefully to make the original minutes (which are usually more legible and more clearly intended to be preserved). These 5 notebooks cover fairly well the gaps in the series of Original minutes caused by the absence of Volume VI (almost certainly this is Sloane MS 3342 in the British Library) and the exceedingly fragmentary state of Volume V.
Disregarding the gaps, the period covered by the combined original and rough minutes is from August 1662 to November 1761. The period covered by the individual volumes are also shown on the backs of the volumes
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.
Physical characteristics:
Guardbooks, notebooks, loose papers.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Concerning the absence of Volume VI of the original minutes, it would appear almost certain that Sloane MS 3342 in the British Museum is that volume.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2009.