Georgian Witnesses
20 / LISTING 140+ SOCIETIES TODAY WHICH CELEBRATE SIGNIFICANT GEORGIANS PLUS ONE FOOTBALL CLUB NAMED AFTER A FAMED OUTLAW
CONTEXT
Note that some popular Georgians have more than one Society named in their honour, so that there are more Societies than individuals.
Note too that some organisations are Federations with many affiliates, so the listed number of Societies is a minimum figure.
The oldest Society listed here dates from 1747 (albeit with some intervening lapses) while the newest is in process of formation in 2021-22.
TWO KEY DEFINITIONS
(1) The listing that follows refers to people who lived in Great Britain and Ireland into the 1680s; or who were born before 31 December 1815, thus passing their formative years before 1840. Two are mythological characters, based upon real people.
(2) The listing also focuses upon Societies that commemorate individuals or their causes, thus excluding the many estimable Memorial Trusts which are dedicated to maintaining the historic properties associated with past celebrities; and excluding the many venues and locations world-wide which are named after
famous Georgians.
20.1 GEORGIAN INDIVIDUALS & COUPLES COMMEMORATED BY SOCIETIES OR ORGANISATIONS IN THEIR NAME, listed alphabetically with web-contact details.
Joseph Addison: Joseph Addison Society, founded 1883 and still surviving, at Queen’s College, Oxford, where Addison studied:
www.queens.ox.ac.uk/addison-society
and Addison Society Discussion group at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Addison was a Fellow:
www.magd.ox.ac.uk/chapel-and-choir/chapel-services/other-chapel-activities
George Africanus: George Africanus Society UK, founded 2015:
www.en-gb.facebook.com/
georgeafricanus
Richard Arkwright: Arkwright Society, founded 1971: a registered charity, listed under:
www.heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk
/our-members/
arkwright-society-ltd
Jane Austen: Jane Austen Society UK, founded 1940:
www.janeaustensociety.org.uk
Jane Austen Society of Australia, founded 1989:
www.jasa.com.au
Jane Austen Society of India
www.facebook.com/
JaneAustenFansIndia
Jane Austen Society of Japan, founded 2006:
http://jane-austen.info/
english.html
Jane Austen Society of Korea,
www.facebook.com/pages/category
/Nonprofit-Organization/
Jane-Austen-Society-
Of-Korea-2018493215038177
Jane Austen Society of North America, founded 1979:
www.jasna.org
Charles Babbage: Charles Babbage Institute, founded 1978 as International Charles Babbage Society, renamed as Institute 1979; from 1980 sponsored and incorporated by University of Minnesota, USA:
www.cse.umn.edu/cbi
Joseph Banks:
Sir Joseph Banks Society:
www.joseph-banks.org.uk
William Thomas Beckford: Beckford Society, founded 1995:
www.beckfordsociety.org
Aphra Behn: Aphra Behn Society, founded c.2007 to celebrate women & the arts:
www.aphrabehn.org
Jeremy Bentham: International Society for Utilitarian Studies/Bentham Project, at University College London founded 1960s; ISUS founded c.2002:
www.ucl.ac.uk/bentham-project/international-society-utilitarian-studies
George Berkeley: International Berkeley Society, founded 1975:
www.internationalberkeley
society.org
Thomas Bewick: Bewick Society, founded 1993:
www.bewicksociety.org
William Blake: Blake Society, founded 1985:
www.blakesociety.org
James Boswell: Boswell Society, founded 1970:
www.theboswellsociety.
wordpress.com
Robert Boyle: Robert Boyle Institut, founded 2004 in Jena, Germany, as research institute in bio-hydrogen technology:
www.zuse-gemeinschaft.de/
institute/company/84
-robert-boyle-institut
James Brindley: James Brindley, Canal Engineer Appreciation Society:
www.facebook.com/James-Brindley-Canal-Engineer-Appreciation-Society1
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown: Capability Brown Society,
founded c.2014:
www.thecapabilitybrownsociety.com
Isambard Brunel: Isambard Kingdom Brunel Society of North America, private foundation established 2009, in New York, USA
www.fconline.foundationcenter.org/
fdo-grantmaker-profile
John Bunyan: International John Bunyan Society, founded 1992 in Alberta, Georgia, USA
www.johnbunyansociety.org
Edmund Burke: Edmund Burke Society, founded 2002 at Russell Kirk Centre, Mecosta, Michigan, USA:
www.kirkcenter.org/edmund-burke-society
Note that between 1967 and 1972 there was an Edmund Burke Society in Canada,with a strong anti-communist stance but it dissolved after internal disagreements:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Edmund_Burke_Society
Fanny Burney: Burney Centre, founded at McGill University, Canada, 1960, also hosting North American Burney Society:
www.mcgill.ca/burneycentre
and Burney Society UK,
founded 1994:
www.burneysociety.uk
Robert Burns: World Federation of 250+ Burns Clubs. Many Burns Clubs preceded the Burns Federation, now the Robert Burns World Federation (RBWF), which was founded at Kilmarnock in 1885:
www.rbwf.org.uk
Bishop Joseph Butler: Joseph Butler Society, founded 1986:
www.josephbutlersociety.weebly.com
George Gordon, Lord Byron: Byron Society, founded in nineteenth century; refounded 1971:
www.thebyronsociety.com
and Byron Society of America, founded 1973:
www.byronsociety.org
and International Association of c.40 Byron Societies, IABS, formerly The International Byron Society,
founded 1976:
www.internationalassociation
ofbyronsocieties.org
George Canning: Canning Club, founded 1911 as Argentine Club; renamed Canning Club in 1948, now organisationally located within Naval & Military Club:
www.theinandout.co.uk/
canning-club
Thomas Carlyle: Carlyle Society, founded c.1970 at Edinburgh, celebrating both Carlyle and wife Jane Welsh Carlyle:
www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/research/current/
carlyle-letters/carlyle-society
Henry Cavendish: Cavendish Laboratory, founded 1874, as Department of Physics,
University of Cambridge:
www.phy.cam.ac.uks
Thomas Chatterton: Thomas Chatterton Society, founded 2014:
www.thomaschattertonsociety.com
Thomas Chippendale: Chippendale Society, founded 1965 in Otley, Yorkshire West Riding:
www.thechippendalesociety.co.uk
John Clare: John Clare Society, founded 1981:
www.johnclaresociety.wordpress.com
Thomas and his brother John Clarkson: Clarksons Society,
founded c.2007:
www.thomasclarkson.org
William Cobbett: William Cobbett Society, founded 1976:
www.williamcobbett.co.uk
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Friends of Coleridge, founded 1986:
www.friendsofcoleridge.com
and see also below Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
James Cook: Captain Cook Society, founded 1975 as Study Unit 1975; refounded as Society 2001:
www.captaincooksociety.com
Thomas Coram: Coram Society, founded 1739 by Coram as London Foundling Hospital; later renamed Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, known simply as Coram: www.coram.org.uk.
This organisation also has specific services under its umbrella, such as Coram’s Children Legal Centre:
www.childrenslegalcentre.com
Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos, founded 1959:
www.darwinfoundation.org
Daniel Defoe: Defoe Society,
founded 2006:
www.defoesociety.org
Charles Dickens:
Dickens Fellowship, founded 1902,
with branches world-wide:
www.dickensfellowship.org
and autonomous Bristol & Clifton Dickens Society, founded 1902, just predating the main Fellowship:
www.dickens-society.org.uk
Maria Edgeworth: Edgeworth Society, now Maria Edgeworth Centre, founded as Society in 1960s; updated 2019 into Maria Edgeworth Centre, based in Edgeworthtown, County Longford, Ireland:
www.mariaedgeworthcenter.com
Olaudah Equiano: Equiano Society, founded 1996:
www.equiano.uk/the-equiano-society
Michael Faraday: Faraday Society, founded 1903, merged since 1980 within Royal Society for Chemistry:
www.en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Faraday_Society
John Field, pianist: John Field Society, Ireland, founded in support of National Concert Hall, Dublin:
www.nch.ie/Onlin/default.asp?
BOparam::WScontent::load
Article::permalink=
John-Field-Society
Charles James Fox: Fox Club. An early nineteenth-century Fox Society in London held annual dinners celebrating Fox’s birthday, a ritual continuing until 1907. A successor group was founded in the 1960s:
www.foxclublondon.com
[no relationship to Fox Club at Harvard University, which is named after the animal not the
English statesman]
Elizabeth Fry: Canadian Association of 24 Elizabeth Fry Societies. First
Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada founded in 1939; included since 1969 in the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies:
www.caefs.ca
David Garrick:
Garrick Club, founded 1831:
www.garrickclub.co.uk
William Garrow: Garrow Society, founded c.2009:
www.garrowsociety.org
Niel Gow: Niel Gow Festival Society
www.facebook.com/nielgowfestival
Emma Hamilton: Emma Hamilton Society, founded 2016:
www.emmahamiltonsociety.co.uk
also collaborates with 1805 Club, founded 1990, which commemorates Admiral Nelson and Georgian naval history: see 20.2
George Frederick Handel (naturalized): London Handel Society, founded 1978, running the annual Handel Festival:
www.london-handel-festival.com
and many other Handel Societies, choirs etc worldwide.
For Handel Societies, Institutes and choirs worldwide in association with
Handel Institute, see:
www.gfhandel.org/links/
societies.html
Thomas Curson Hansard: Hansard Society, founded 1944 to provide independent research on parliamentary affairs:
www.hansardsociety.org.uk
Eliza Haywood: Eliza Haywood Society, founded 2019:
www.elizahaywood.org
William Hazlitt: William Hazlitt Society, founded 2003 at University College London:
www.ucl.ac.uk/hazlitt-society
Caroline and William Herschel: Herschel Society, founded 2020:
herschelsociety.org.uk
William Hogarth: William Hogarth Trust, founded 1955:
www.williamhogarthtrust.org.uk
John Howard: Howard League for Penal Reform, founded 1866, initially named the Howard Association:
howardleague.org
and Howard League for Penal Reform Canterbury, New Zealand, founded 1924:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Howard_League_for_
Penal_Reform_Canterbury
and John Howard Society, Canada, founded 1931, coalescing numerous local groups in Canada operating from 1860s:
www.johnhoward.ca
David Hume: Hume Society,
founded 1974:
www.humesociety.org
James Hutton: James Hutton Institute, founded 2011 at
Aberdeen University:
www.hutton.ac.uk
Jacobite claimants to British throne: Royal Stuart Society, founded 1926, to support Jacobite studies and to oppose republicanism:
www.royalstuartsociety.com
and ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charles Stuart: A Circle of Gentlemen, founded 1747 as secret society after Jacobite defeat at Culloden; fading by c.1800; later revived in 1990s as invitation-only society; 2011 opened to general membership;
www.circleofgentlemen.org
Edward Jenner: Edward Jenner Society, founded 2011:
www.edwardjennersociety.org
and Jenner Institute, supported by Jenner Vaccine Foundation, founded 2005, within Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford:
www.jenner.ac.uk
Samuel Johnson: Johnson Society of London, founded 1928:
www.johnsonsocietyoflondon.org
John Keats: Keats Foundation, founded 2010:
www.keatsfoundation.com
and Keats-Shelley Association of America, founded 1949:
www.k-saa.org
Anne Lister: Anne Lister Society, hosted on website of Northwestern University, English Department, Evanston, Illinois, USA; planning to become membership organisation 2021 – 2022:
www.english.northwestern.edu/
about/anne-lister-society
John Locke: John Locke Society, founded 2012, developed from earlier Locke Workshops:
www.thejohnlockesociety.com
Ada Lovelace: Ada Lovelace Institute, founded 2018 by
Nuffield Foundation:
www.adalovelaceinstitute.org
Ned Ludd (legend based upon an individual): Ned Ludd Society,
founded C21?:
www.facebook.com/nedluddsociety
Thomas Malthus: International Society of Malthus, updated from earlier Malthusian League, which flourished from 1877 to 1927, but foundation date unclear:
www.desip.igc.org/malthus
Harriet and her brother James Martineau: Martineau Society, founded 1994:
www.martineausociety.co.uk
Hannah More: Hannah More Society,
founded C21?:
www.twitter.com/HannahMoreSoc?
ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctw
camp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Richard ‘Beau’ Nash: Beau Nash Community Benefit Society, known as Komedia, founded 1994:
www.komedia.co.uk
Horatio Nelson: Nelson Society, founded 1981:
www.nelson-society.com
and see also Emma Hamilton for 1805 Club
Thomas Newcomen: Newcomen – International Society for History of Engineering and Technology, founded 1950:
www.newcomen.com
John Henry Newman: Newman Society, founded 1878 as Oxford University Catholic Club; renamed Newman Society 1888:
www.newmansociety.co.uk
Isaac Newton: Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, founded 1992 at Cambridge University:
www.newton.ac.uk
Robert Owen: Robert Owen Society, founded c.1982 as non-profit co-operative company, which organises education and regeneration services, based in Leominster, Herefordshire:
www.linkedin.com/company/
robert-owen-society
Thomas Paine:
Thomas Paine Society UK,
founded c.2003:
www.thomaspaineuk.com
and Thomas Paine Society USA, founded 1993 in Pasadena, California, USA:
www.thomaspainesociety.org
Thomas Love Peacock:
Thomas Love Peacock Society,
founded 1996 in Tasmania:
www.thomaslovepeacock.net
Dic Penderyn (Richard Lewis): Dic Penderyn Society, founded c.2005:
www.alangeorge.co.uk/
dicpenderynsociety.htm
Samuel Pepys: Samuel Pepys Club, founded 1903:
www.pepys-club.org.uk
William Pitt the Younger: Cambridge University Pitt Club, founded 1835:
www.pittclub.org.uk
Richard Price: Richard Price Society , founded c.2013:
richardpricesociety.org.uk
Joseph Priestley: Joseph Priestley Society, founded early C21?, under aegis of international Science History Institute, Philadelphia USA:
www.sciencehistory.org/joseph-priestley-society
Henry Purcell: Purcell Society, founded 1876:
www.henrypurcell.org.uk
Stamford Raffles Raffles Society/Zoological Society of London, fund-raising society within London’s Zoological Society, named after Zoo’s founder in 1826:
www.zsl.org/support-us/gifts-in-
wills/your-pledge-and-the
-raffles-society
George W.M. Reynolds: International G.W.M. Reynolds Society,
founded c.2014:
www.gwmreynoldssociety.com
Samuel Richardson: Samuel Richardson Society,
founded C21?:
www.facebook.com/pages/category/
Nonprofit-Organization/
Samuel-Richardson-Society
Walter Scott: Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club, founded 1894:
www.walterscottclub.com
Mary Seacole: Mary Seacole Trust, founded 2004:
www.maryseacoletrust.org.uk
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Shelley Society. An early Shelley Society flourished from 1886 to 1892, while a later version dates from the early twenty-first century:
www.twitter.com/Shelley
and see above Keats-Shelley Association of America
Sarah Siddons: Sarah Siddons Society, founded 1952 in Chicago:
www.sarahsiddonssociety.org
Adam Smith: Adam Smith Institute, founded 1970 in London:
www.adamsmith.org
and Adam Smith Society, founded 2011 by Manhattan Institute, USA:
www.adamsmithsociety.com
Sydney Smith: Sydney Smith Association, founded 1996:
www.sydneysmith.org.uk
Thomas Spence: Thomas Spence Society, founded early C21
as campaign website:
www.thomas-spence-society.co.uk
George Stephenson: Stephenson Locomotive Society, founded 1909:
www.stephensonloco.org.uk
Laurence Sterne: The Shandean – International Sterne Foundation, founded 2013:
www.shandean.org
John Thelwall: John Thelwall Society, founded 2011:
www.johnthelwall.org
Theobald Wolfe Tone: Wolfe Tone Societies/Muintir Wolfe Tone, Ireland, founded 1964 and after:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wolfe_Tone_Societies
and Wolfe Tone Society, Camden Town, London, founded 1984: see Cindex of Services + Organisations
in Camden
www.cindex.camden.gov.uk
Richard Trevithick: Trevithick Society, founded 1969 by merger of Cornish Engines Preservation Committee (founded 1935) with Cornish Waterwheel
Preservation Society:
www.trevithicksociety.info
Joseph Mallord William Turner: Turner Society, founded 1975:
www.turnersociety.com
Dick Turpin: Dick Turpin Golf Society, founded 2011 in Deal, Kent, with cheerful humour:
www.dickturpin.org
Horace Walpole: Walpole Society, founded 1911:
www.walpolesociety.org.uk
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington: Waterloo Association, founded initially to preserve the Waterloo battle site, and then in 1972 broadening to support research into all Wellington’s campaigns
against Bonaparte:
www.waterlooassociation.org.uk
John Wesley: John Wesley Society, founded 1883 in Oxford, initially as Wesley Guild; renamed 1903
as Society:
www.wesleysoxford.org.uk/topics/
john-wesley-society
George Whitefield: George Whitefield Society, founded 1995. in Oklahoma City, USA:
www.whitefieldsociety.com
William Wilberforce: Wilberforce Institute, Hull, founded 2006 as Hull University’s Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation:
www.wilberforceinstitute.uk
and Wilberforce Society, founded 2009 at Cambridge University as independent student think-tank:
www.csap.cam.ac.uk/organisations/
the-wilberforce-society
James Wolfe: Wolfe Society, founded 1761 to hold annual dinner in Wolfe’s honour, with a continuing tradition including some gap years:
www.en.wikipedia. org/wiki/James_Wolfe/legacy
Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft Society, founded 2018:
www.wollstonecraftsociety.org
James Woodforde: Parson Woodforde Society, founded 1968:
www.parsonwoodforde.org.uk
William Wordsworth: Wordsworth Trust and Society, founded 1880 as Wordsworth Trust, supporting Wordsworth Society, Grasmere, Cumbria, UK:
www.wordsworth.org.uk/
items/society
and Wordsworth-Coleridge Association, founded 1970, with international membership, affiliated to Modern Language
Association, USA:
www.bu.edu/editinst/about/the-wordsworth-circle/the-wordsworth-coleridgeassociation
Christopher Wren: Wren Society, founded 1832 as secret society at College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA; in disarray during American Civil War; revived in twentieth century; details still not in public domain:
www.en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Wren_Society.
Note that a scholarly Wren Society in the UK between 1923 and 1943 published numerous volumes of Christopher Wren’s designs and plans with Oxford University Press
20.2 FOUR SOCIETIES ORGANISED AROUND SIGNIFICANT LONG EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DATES
OR ERAS
1745: 1745 Association, founded c.1954 to study the Jacobite campaigns and to preserve memories of those involved:
www.1745organisation.org.uk
1805: The 1805 Club, founded 1990 to commemorate Admiral Nelson and Georgian maritime history; works with Nelson Society and Emma Hamilton Society:
www.1805club.org
The Regency: Regency Society, founded 1945 in Brighton &
Hove, England:
www.regencysociety.org
1828: 1828 Think-tank, founded 2018 to campaign for neo-liberal free-market agenda:
www.1828.org.uk
20.3 FINALLY, THE ONE GEORGIAN OUTLAW WHO TODAY HAS A FOOTBALL TEAM NAMED
AFTER HIM
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy F.C. founded in 1878, and nicknamed The Rabs or The Roy, is located in Kirkintilloch, north-east of Glasgow in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The club’s name commemorates Rob Roy MacGregor (1671 – 1724), the Jacobite warrior who was later outlawed, and became a legend, with the help of publications about his life especially Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy (1817).
Using the image of the fighting Scot and borrowing the name of a romantic battler against authority were ways of drawing support from history, even if a distinctly mythic history. Borrowing and adaptations from the past are part of the intricate process of inter-generational sharing, in this case referencing an old history, not to rehash old rights and wrongs, but to turn it into doughty new adventures. For the latest information about the team:
www.robroy.org.uk
