{"id":7097,"date":"2024-07-29T11:16:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T10:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/?p=7097"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:58:28","slug":"spalding-gentlemens-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2024\/07\/29\/spalding-gentlemens-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Spalding Gentlemen&#8217;s Society."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Spalding Gentlemen\u2019s Society, one of the oldest learned societies in the Kingdom and the earliest provincial association for the encouragement of antiquarianism, was founded by Maurice Johnson (1688-1755), \u201cThe Antiquary\u201d, of Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It began with a series of informal meetings of a few local gentlemen at a coffee-house in the Abbey Yard, Spalding, in 1710 to discuss local antiquities and to read<em>&nbsp;The Tatler<\/em>, a newly published London periodical. In 1712 it was decided to place these meetings upon a permanent footing and proposals were issued for the establishing of \u201ca Society of Gentlemen, for the supporting of mutual benevolence, and their improvement in the liberal sciences and in polite learning\u201d. In that year formal meetings began with the appointment of officers and the keeping in minutes. The founder,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sgsoc.org\/maurice-johnson\">Maurice Johnson<\/a>, also played a leading part in refounding the Society of Antiquaries of London, and for some years an exchange of minutes took place. Francis, Duke of Buccleuch (1695-1751), Lord of the Manor of Spalding-cum-Membris, became Patron of the Society in 1732.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The history of the foundation of the Society and its development in the 18th century is to be found in Nichols\u2019&nbsp;<em>Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica<\/em>, 1790, and also in Nichols\u2019&nbsp;<em>Literary Anecdotes<\/em>, vol. vi. 1812. Other histories are by the Revd. William Moore, D.D. (1851), Dr. Marten Perry, G.W. Bailey and S.W.Woodward. In 1981 the Lincoln Record Society published&nbsp;<em>The Minute books of the Spalding Gentlemen\u2019s Society 1712-1755<\/em>&nbsp;selected and introduced by Dorothy M. Owen, M.B.E., D.Litt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The museum collection is, with the exception of the Ashmolean, the oldest in the United Kingdom. Some of the early museum specimens have vanished for, in the course of the centuries, the Society had many homes in various parts of the town before it built its present museum. The museum contains, among other things, a rare specimen of James Christopher le Blon\u2019s tapestry A head of Christ, presented by Sir Richard Manningham in 1732, and a fine astrolabe dated 1565 of Flemish workmanship, formerly in the possession of Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-1591), Lord Chancellor of Queen Elizabeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The museum is open Tues to Sat 10-4. Entry free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sgsoc.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spalding Gentlemen\u2019s Society,<br>9 Broad Street,<br>Spalding,\u00a0<br>PE11 1TB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThe Spalding Gentlemen\u2019s Society, one of the oldest learned societies in the Kingdom and the earliest provincial association for the&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2024\/07\/29\/spalding-gentlemens-society\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Spalding Gentlemen&#8217;s Society.&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_eb_attr":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[947],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Spalding_logo.png?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13812,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2026\/04\/25\/fenland-heritage-group-may-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":0},"title":"Fenland Heritage Group &#8211; May 2026.","author":"John Parker","date":"25 April 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Fenland Heritage Network is an informal group of organisations with the common aim of promoting the history and heritage of the Fenland region. The network is open to all organisations across the region including museums, libraries, local history groups and archaeology societies. Events in May 2026: 02 May CAS, CAMBRIDGE\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Information&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/More_icon.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10587,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2025\/07\/21\/friends-of-the-centre-for-english-local-history-annual-general-meeting-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":1},"title":"Friends of the Centre for English Local History Annual General Meeting 18 November 2025.","author":"John Parker","date":"21 July 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Chair's report highlights the launch of the Phythian-Adams Award. This award provides financial assistance to students studying for the BA in History at Leicester University who are preparing their dissertation topics and need to visit and conduct research at an archive within the UK. Another great success was Hoskins Day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Information&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Anne-Coyne-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12981,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2026\/02\/17\/maurice-bond-lecture-and-harley-prize-presentation\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":2},"title":"Maurice Bond Lecture and Harley Prize Presentation &#8211; May 2026.","author":"John Parker","date":"17 February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2026 Maurice Bond Lecture will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 6:00PM to 9:00PM at the Guildhall Library, London. This year's lecture will be given by Juergen Vervoorst FIIC ACR, Head of Collection Care at The National Archives. Standards for the management and preservation of archival and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Information&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eventbrite_icon-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7986,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2024\/10\/26\/beresfords-lost-villages\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":3},"title":"Beresford&#8217;s Lost Villages.","author":"John Parker","date":"26 October 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A website dedicated to deserted medieval villages. This website is was made possible by a generous legacy bequeathed to the University of Hull by Professor Maurice Beresford and it isdedicated to the study of Deserted Medieval Settlements. It concentrates on those settlements identified as being deserted in the seminal publication\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Information&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beresford.png?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13076,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2026\/02\/25\/local-population-studies-society-final-conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":4},"title":"Local Population Studies Society Final Conference &#8211; July 2026.","author":"John Parker","date":"25 February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The LPSS Final Conference will take place at Madingley Hall, Madingley, Cambridgeshire on July 4th 2026. Further details will be circulated shortly. The Local Population Studies Society (LPSS) is the United Kingdom's only charity solely devoted to the promotion of all aspects of historical demography in a local context. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Conference&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Conference","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/conference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Madingley-Hall-100x100.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6189,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2024\/02\/22\/andrew-hopper\/","url_meta":{"origin":7097,"position":5},"title":"Andrew Hopper: Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research.","author":"John Parker","date":"22 February 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Hopper, Professor in Local and Social History in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford (and formerly of the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester), has been elected a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR). The fellowship scheme recognises\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Information&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Prof-Andy-Hopper1_people.png?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbx2mR-1Qt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}