Royal Historical Society , 1868-1997

The Royal Historical Society (RHS) was founded on 23 Nov 1868, at a meeting at Somerset Chambers, the Strand, at office of Louis Charles Alexander, accountant and banker.
Those present at this meeting included Alexander's business partners Gibson and Rae, as well as Rev Dr Charles Rogers, Dr J E Carpenter, and Rev Samuel Cowdy. A constitution and laws for the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain were approved, with the objects of conducting historical, biographical and ethnological investigations. A pattern of regular meetings was established, the Archbishop of York - William Thompson, was designated President, and others proposed as Vice-Presidents and members of Council. Rogers was appointed Histroiographer and Alexander, Secretary.
The Archbishop declined the presidency, and the Society continued without a President until its first Annual general Meeting, Jan 1870, when George Grote, President of the University College and Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, was elected. At this time, its was agreed that a volume of Transactions should be published, and that permission be sought for the use of the prefix 'Royal' as described in the Society's constitution, but abandoned in practice.

There is some dispute about the validity of the minutes of the first Annual General Meeting and it appears that Rogers by underhand methods ousted Alexander from his post to consolidate his own position, was elected a life member, awarded an annual stipend and soon after took up the position of Honorary Secretary. This was followed by a public subscription in 1873 to procure the erection of a house for Rogers in recognition of his literary and public services. As well as this he was granted a gratuity for unpaid labours between 1868 and 1872, and successive salary raises and gratuities between Nov 1873 and 1876.

In Jan 1870, the Society had a membership of approximately 50, including associations, honorary members and corresponding members. That same year the Society amalgamated with the Provincial Record Association, in 1874, the English Reprint Society, and 1876, the British Genealogical Institute, in all of which Rogers had some involvement.

The Society's first publication was its Transaction, issued in two parts in 1871 and 1872, though not being strictly limited to papers read to the Society. By the end of 1872, membership had reached 100. In Nov 1872, 158 Fellows were elected at a single meeting of Council.

The society was not initially a professional society with professional standards. The average attendance at the ordinary meetings of Council from 1870-1878 was only 4, of which one was always Rogers. Papers were read to more numerous gatherings. A library collection was begun and in 1877, comprised mainly the Transactions of European and American historical societies.

Criticism of the Society's affairs was finally heard at a meeting of the Council in 1878 - that membership was too cheap, annual accounts were unsatisfactory, the subscriptions had not been invested, only one publication a year had been forthcoming, and the Society was spoken of amongst literary circles with anything but respect. Public denigration of the Society in the pages of the Atheneum, 1879-1880 sparked change, and a Committee of Enquiry was established in Jan 1881. Rogers instant resignation was demanded, and after further meetings, finally implemented. Following this upheaval the government of the society was put on a more regular footing, new regulations and financial arrangements adopted, and gradually gained the support of those interested in historical research in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

In 1886 the Society co-operated with the Public Record Office and the British Museum, in the Domesday Commemoration proceedings, and initiated a Conference of Historical Teaching in Schools.

Royal patronage was granted to the Society in 1888 and Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1889. This same year, the by-laws were revised, and in 1890 a Finance Committee appointed, followed by a Library Committee in 1891. The office of Director was also approved and Hubert Hall appointed, a post he held for 47 years.

The Society was fully involved in events for the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), historian and scholar in 1894, when Patrick Edward Dove, Secretary since 1882, apparently committee suicide. It was also revealed that money belonging to the RHS, as well as the Seldon Society of which Dove was both Treasurer and Hon Secretary had disappeared. However, the loyalty of the members sustained the Society, the Director took over the secretary's duties.

Falling membership of the society during the 1890s, and the approach of the Camden Society proposing amalgamation between the two societies in1896, was not unwelcome. The proposal was approved at a Special meeting on Nov 1896, and came into effect on 1 May 1897. Members of the Camden Society became Fellows of the RHS, with three of them taking seats on the Council. The RHS took over the balance of the Camden Society's funds and other assets, and it was agreed that the series of Camden volumes should continue as a publication of the RHS.

The Society took on a much more professional character in the 1890s, with a new programme of scholarly research, the selection of highly qualified members, and gave serious attention to its library. In 1897, Louis Charles Alexander, the first secretary, who had reassumed membership following the departure of Rogers, endowed the Alexander Medal and the first Alexander Prize Essay was presented in 1898.

In 1899 A W Ward was appointed President and in 1901 G W Prothero, former Professor of History at Edinburgh, was offered the Presidency. Both these men were active in attempts to establish a School of Advanced Historical Studies in London, which was without a History School, but only succeeded in establishing an annual Creighton Memorial Lecture at the University of London and temporary provision of two lectureships at LSE. In 1906 the Historical Association was founded as a valuable adjunct to this work, and was housed in the RHS for 30 years.

However the Society's primary object remained as a publisher, with two thirds of their income being devoted to this. Ward initiated plans for a larger publishing project - an historical bibliography for Great Britain and Ireland since the Middle Ages. First discussed in 1885, again in 1896, and 1903 it gained shape and form, finally in 1909 a plan for the bibliography was approved, with Prothero appointed general editor. (Bibliography of British History). The outbreak of war in 1914, brought a halt to the plans for the Bibliography of British History. On Prothero's death in 1922 a consultative committee was set up to carry on the work for the Bibliography of British History. In 1928, the 17th century volume was published in 1928, and the sixteenth century volume in [1933].

In 1929, a second Prize Essay was endowed - in Scottish history. In 1933 RHS underwent some administrative renovation, which included the creation of a new class of Associate Members. The Society inherited the bulk of Prothero's estate, following the death of his wife in 1934 a bequest of over £22 400 pounds, as well as his library. In 1968, an annual lectureship was instituted in his memory.

The Society is currently composed of over 2,500 Fellows from Britain and around the world, who are deemed to have made an original contribution to historical scholarship in the form of significant published work. The Fellows elect a Council which governs the Society's affairs. The Society is administered by a full-time Secretariat.

Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1829-1902) Born near Arlesford, 4 March 1829, the son of Rawson Boddam Gardiner and Margaret Baring Gould. He was educated at Winchester, and Christ Church, Oxford. Awarded DCL, LLD, LittD, 1st class Lit. Hum. 1851; Hon. Student of Christ Church, Oxford. He was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Professor of Modern History at King's College London. He died on 23 February 1902.
Publications: History of England, 1603-1642; History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649; Cromwell's Place in History, 1897; What Gunpowder Plot was, 1897; History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.

James Frederick Chance (1856-1938) Born 9 April 1856, the son of Sir James Timmins Chance, Bart. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Held the position of Honorary Secretary to the Eton War Memorial Fund since 1917. Awarded MA; Vice President, Royal Historical Society. Died 18 October 1938.
Publications: George I and the Northern War, 1909; The Alliance of Hanover, 1923; List of Diplomatic Representatives and Agents, England and North Germany, 1689-1727, 1907; List of Diplomatic Representatives and Agents, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, 1689-1762, 1909; edited for the Royal Historical Society, Diplomatic Instructions, vol. i, Sweden, 1689-1727, 1922, vol. iii, Denmark, 1689-1789, 1926; vol. v, Sweden, 1727-1789, 1928; The Lighthouse Work of Sir James Chance, Bart, 1902; A History of the Firm of Chance Brothers and Company, 1919; Chance of Birmingham and Bromsgrove, 1892; The Pattinsons of Kirklinton, 1899.

Charles Rogers (1825-1890) Scottish author. Born in Denino, Fife, 18 April 1825, the only son of James Rogers (1767-1849), the local minister, and his wife Jane Haldane. He was educated at Denino parish school, and the University of St. Andrews, matriculating in 1839. Licensed by the presbytery of St Andrews in June 1846, he was employed in the capacity of assistant successively at Western Anstruther, Kinglassie, Abbotshall, Dunfermline, Ballingry, and Carnoustie. Subsequently he opened a preaching station at the Bridge of Allan, and from January 1855 until 11 Aug. 1863 was chaplain of the garrison at Stirling Castle. In 1855 he inaugurated at Stirling a short-lived Scottish Literary Institute. In 1862 he opened the British Christian Institute, for the dissemination of religious tracts, especially to soldiers and sailors, and in connection with it he issued a weekly paper, called The Workman's Friend,' and afterwards monthly serials,The Briton' and The Recorder;' but the scheme collapsed in 1863. In 1863 he founded and edited a newspaper,The Stirling Gazette,' but its career was brief. These schemes involved Rogers in much contention and litigation, and he imagined himself the victim of misrepresentation and persecution. To escape his calumniators he resigned his chaplaincy in 1863, went to England, and thenceforth devoted himself to literary work.
Rogers's earliest literary efforts in London were journalistic, but his chief interest was Scottish history, literature, and genealogy. He also had a passion for founding literary societies. In November 1865 he originated in London a short-lived Naval and Military Tract Society, as a successor to his British Christian Institute, and in connection with it he edited a quarterly periodical called The British Bulwark.' When that society's existence terminated, he set upThe London Book and Tract Depository,' which he carried on until 1874. The most successful of all his foundations - the Grampian Club, was inaugurated in London on 2 Nov. 1868, and he was secretary and chief editor until his death. Its purpose was to issue works illustrative of Scottish literature, history, and antiquities. He also claimed to be the founder of the Royal Historical Society, which was established in London on 23 Nov 1868, for the conduct of historical, biographical, and ethnological investigations. He was secretary and historiographer to this Society until 1880, when he was openly charged with working it for his own pecuniary benefit. He defended himself in a pamphlet, Parting Words to the Members,' 1881, and reviewed his past life inThe Serpent's Track: a Narrative of twenty-two years' Persecution' (1880). He edited eight volumes of the Historical Society's `Transactions,' in which he wrote much himself.
He was awarded a the degree of LL.D from Columbia College, New York, in 1854; and D.D. by the University of St Andrews in 1881. He was a member, fellow, or correspondent of numerous learned societies, British, foreign, and colonial, and an associate of the Imperial Archæological Society of Russia. He died in Edinburgh on 18 Sept. 1890, at the aged 65. Rogers married, on 14 Dec. 1854, Jane, the eldest daughter of John Bain of St. Andrews.

Publications:
I. Historical and Biographical- Notes in the History of Sir Jerome Alexander, 1872; Three Scots Reformers, 1874; Life of George Wishart, 1875; Memorials of the Scottish House of Gourlay, 1888; Memorials of the Earls of Stirling and House of Alexander, 2 vols. 1877; The Book of Wallace, 2 vols. 1889; The Book of Burns, 3 vols. 1889-91;
II. Topographical - History of St. Andrews, 1849; A Week at the Bridge of Allan, 1851; The Beauties of Upper Strathearn, 1854; Ettrick Forest and the Ettrick Shepherd, 1860;
III. Genealogical- Genealogical Chart of the Family of Bain, 1871; The House of Roger, 1872; Memorials of the Strachans of Thornton and Family of Wise of Hillbank, 1873; Robert Burns and the Scottish House of Burnes, 1877; Sir Walter Scott and Memorials of the Haliburtons, 1877; The Scottish House of Christie, 1878; The Family of Colt and Coutts, 1879; The Family of John Knox, 1879; The Scottish Family of Glen, 1888;
IV. Ecclesiastical- Historical Notices of St. Anthony's Monastery, Leith, 1849; History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland, 1882;
V. Social- Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Life, 1861; Traits and Stories of the Scottish People, 1867; Scotland, Social and Domestic, 1869; A Century of Scottish Life, 1871; Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland, 2 vols. 1871-2; Social Life in Scotland, 3 vols. 1884-6;
VI. Religious - Christian Heroes in the Army and Navy, 1867; Our Eternal Destiny, 1868;
VII. Poetical- The Modern Scottish Minstrel, 6 vols. 1855-7; The Sacred Minstrel, 1859; The Golden Sheaf, 1867; Lyra Britannica, 1867; Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, 1869;
VIII. Autobiographical and General- Issues of Religious Rivalry, 1866; Leaves from my Autobiography, 1876; The Serpent's Track, 1880; Parting Words to the Members of the Royal Historical Society, 1881; Threads of Thought, 1888; The Oak, 1868;
Rogers also edited: Aytoun's Poems, 1844; Campbell's Poems, 1870; Sir John Scot's Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen, 1872; Poetical Remains of King James, 1873; Hay's Estimate of the Scottish Nobility; Glen's Poems, 1874; Diocesan Registers of Glasgow, 2 vols. 1875 (in conjunction with Mr. Joseph Bain); Boswelliana, 1874; Register of the Church of Crail, 1877; Events in the North of Scotland, 1635 to 1645, 1877; Chartulary of the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream, 1879; Rental-book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar-Angus, 1880; The Earl of Stirling's Register of Royal Letters, 2 vols. 1884-5.

Cyril Saunders Spackman (1887-1963) Sculptor, painter-etcher and architect. Born Cleveland, USA, 15 August 1887, the only son of Rev. John and Adelaide Saunders Spackman. He was educated at Public schools, Cleveland, Central Foundation School, London and King's Coll., London. FRNS.

He exhibited at Royal Academy, Paris Salons, as well as in regional Britian and in the USA. He was the designer of the Masonic Million Memorial Medal (exhibited Royal Academy and RMS, 1922) as well as medals for the Corporation of Croydon and the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors; Medal of Harding Award for Selhurst Grammar School; The Nativity, The Crucifixion, The Ascension, Altar Panels in Grosmont Church, Monmouthshire; Crucifix in Hoptonwood stone in All Saints at Selhurst; Large Relief, St George and the Dragon, Clipsham stone, Ashburton Secondary Modern School, Croydon. He was filmed by Br. Paramount News and Wallace Productions Ltd carving bust of Wendy Newbury. Other sculptures include: Emancipation, in Belgian Black Marble; (Hon. Mention Salon, Paris, 1952), Duke of Devonshire, KG, in Hadene Marble; The Hall Stone Medal for United Grand Lodge of England; Black Marble Head (in the Municipal Museum Art Gallery, Arnheim).
Spackman was also Honorary Vice-President South-Eastern Society of Architects, Member Cleveland Society of Artists, Chicago Society of Etchers, Late Art Editor of The Parthenon. Chairman, Croydon University Extension Committee; Honorary-Vice-President Croydon Symphony Orchestra; Member Committee Croydon Writers' Circle; Vice-President Croydon Camera Club; Freeman and a Citizen of London; Freedom and Livery of The Company of Masons. In 1922 he married Ada Victoria (Queenie) Sadleir. He died on 16 May 1963.
Publications:
Colour Prints of a Dream Garden, and an Old-World Garden, from the original paintings exhibited at the RBA; contributor to the Architectural Review, etc.

Frederick Solly Flood (1801-1888) Born 1801, son of Richard Solly, Portman Square, London. He was educated at Harrow School, and Trinity College Cambridge. In 1820, following the death of his father, he took by Royal Licence the additional name of his maternal grandfather, a prominent Irish politician, Sir Frederick Flood (1741-1824). In 1924, he inherited his grandfather's property, and married Mary Williamson of Stoke Damerel, Devonport, who died in 1864. Admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1824, he was called to the bar in 1828, joining the Midland Circuit, and attending Warwick an Northampton Sessions. He was attorney General of Gibraltar 1872-1877. He was elected Fellow of the RHS in 1885.

(Arthur Frederic) Basil Williams (1867-1950) historian. Born in London 4 April 1867, the only son of Frederick George Adolphus Williams, barrister-at-law, and his wife, Mary Katharine Lemon. He was educated at Marlborough and New College, Oxford. After graduating, he obtained a clerkship in the House of Commons where it was his duty to attend the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the responsibility for the Jameson raid; the appearance of Cecil Rhodes made a deep impression on him, and perhaps this accounts for his decision, many years later, to write Rhodes's biography. Williams volunteered for service in the South African war, and spent a year's campaign in the same unit with Erskine Childers. He co-operated with Childers in attempts to work out a solution of the Home Rule question, and wrote a memoir of him after his execution in 1922. Returning briefly to England, Williams went out again to South Africa as a civilian, where he served Lord Milner. He assisted Lionel Curtis, then town clerk at Johannesburg, and worked later in the education department.
On his second return to England he gave himself in earnest to his career as an historian of the eighteenth century. He distinguished himself by a series of articles on Sir Robert Walpole's foreign policy in the English Historical Review (1900-1). He was a skilled biographer, writhing the lives of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1913), and Stanhope (1932), Carteret and Newcastle (1943). He also wrote a general work on British history under the early Hanoverians, with the title The Whig Supremacy 1714-60 (1939).

During World War 1, he served as an education officer in the Royal Field Artillery and in 1919 was appointed O.B.E. for his services. He was Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University (1921-5), and then Professor of history at Edinburgh until 1937 when he retired under the age limit. He was elected Fellow, British Academy, 1935. He retained his interest in South Africa, and this became a secondary sphere of historical interest. In 1921 he published his life of Cecil Rhodes and in 1946 a book on Botha, Smuts and South Africa.

In 1905 Williams married Dorothy (died 1948), daughter of Francis William Caulfield. He died at Chelsea 5 January 1950.