Sociability, Provincial Antiquarianism and Networks of Knowledge in the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, 1710-1755

At the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society (SGS) in Lincolnshire, founded in 1710, there is a rich archive of minute books, correspondence, accounts, printed ephemera and artwork, parts of which have been used over the years to tell the story of various aspects of its existence. What follows interrogates these archives using qualitative and quantitative methods alongside analysis of networks to paint a bigger picture which shows how the provincial location of the SGS shaped its structure, knowledge networks and interests. I argue that founder Maurice Johnson – far from slavishly copying the structures and activities of the metropolitan societies with which he was familiar – turned the provincial situation to his advantage. Influences from London did shape its early form, including its meeting place (the coffee house) and reading material (periodicals sent from London). Johnson engaged his Society with local opportunities for sociability and entertainment, created and sustained extensive networks of honorary members to provide material for discussion at the local level, and above all involved as wide a spectrum of people as possible. Because of this, local members of the SGS did not need to rely on links with London. Rather, these links allowed them to flourish independently. Of particular interest is what its activities show us about how learned societies in this period engaged with familial networks, as well as how women could be involved in antiquarian and scientific work at an institutional level. This was also a period in which certain genres of writing – notably here institutional records such as minute books – were in flux. I use the SGS minute books to explore the material cultures of institutional record-keeping and show how such records served a variety of purposes, notably in creating an institutional identity. My work views the SGS’s activities through a number of contemporary scholarly and interdisciplinary lenses in eighteenth-century studies, including provincial sociability, print and manuscript culture, and gender history. Provinciality should be considered as a necessary factor which allowed it to do extraordinary things, far out of scale with its local means.