Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/226

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NOTES AND QUERIES. \n s. vi. SEPT. 7, 1912.

Driden), Edmund Waller, William Hammond, and Thomas Stanley, while Abraham Cowley and John Denham joined the Society later."

The second document on the same date is as follows :

December 5th, 1660.

We whose names are underwritten do consent and agree that we will meet together weekly (if not hindered by necessary occasions) to consult and debate, concerning the promoting of experi- mentall learning ; and that each of us will allow one shilling weekly towards the defraying of occasionall charges. Provided that if any one or more of us shall think fitt, at any time, to withdraw, he or they, after notice thereof given to the company at a meeting, be freed from this obligation for the future.

JOHN AWBREY JAMES LONG

EDWARD COTTON LOWTHER THO: SPRAT JASPAR NEDHAM.

Both these documents appear in facsimile in the first part of the memorial volume. Sir A. Geikie states in reference to the date December oth, 1660, that " each page is so dated in the Journal, more than a year and a half prior to the incorporation of these earnest inquirers into a chartered institution under the name of the Royal Society."

Evelyn records in his Diary on the 18th of September, 1661 :

" This day was read our petition to his Majesty for his royal grant, authorizing our Society to meet as a corporation, with several privileges."

On the 3rd of December by ' universal suffrage " an order was made and registered that Evelyn should receive the public thanks of the Philosophic Society for the honourable mention he had made of them " by the name of Royal Society in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Lord Chancellor before his ' Traducion of Naudaeus.' ' : " Too great an honour," he says, " for a trifle."

Sir A. Geikie says of this in ' The Record ' :

"It is allowable to believe that during the fre- quent conversations which Evelyn had with the King that autumn, when so many subjects were discussed, the important matter of the Society's name was considered. Charles was now generously interested in the work of the philosophers, and if he did not propose the title himself, he doubtless at once approved of it, if it was suggested by his eminent and esteemed courtier."

The Charter of Incorporation passed the Great Seal on the 15th of July, 1662 ; this is, therefore, the date of the formal founda- tion of the Royal Society.

The charter was read before the Society on the 13th of August, and on the 29th the President, Council, and Fellows went to Whitehall and returned their thanks to his Majesty.

On the 21st of August Evelyn states :

" I was admitted and then sworn one of the Council of the Royal Society, being nominated in his Majesty's original grant to be of this Council for the regulation of the Society, and making laws and statutes conducible to its estab- lishment and progress, for which we now set apart every Wednesday morning till they were all finished. Lord Viscount Brouncker (that excellent mathematician) was also by his Majesty, our founder, nominated our first President.

" The King gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms, and sent us a mace of silver gilt, of the same fashion and bigness as those carried before his Majesty, to be borne before our President on meeting days. It was brought by Sir Gilbert Talbot, Master of his Majesty's Jewel House."

The mace is still in regular use. At every meeting it is placed on the table in front of the President before the business is begun. It bears the following inscription :

Ex munificentia Augustissimi Monarchae

Caroli II. Dei Gra. Mag. Brit. Franc, et Hib.

Regis, &c.

Societatis Regal is ad Scientiam

Naturalem promouenda Institute

Fundatoris et Patroni

An. Dni. 1663.

Although Evelyn refers to the presentation under date of August 21st, 1662, the gift was not actually made until the 23rd of May in the following year ; and, as he shows in his Diary for the 17th of September, 1662, it was only on the latter date that the arms of the Society were decided upon. His words are :

" We now resolved that the Arms of the Society should be a field Argent, with a canton of the arms of England, the supporters two. talbots Argent : crest, an eagle Or holding a shield with the like arms of England, viz., three lions. The words Nullius in verba. It was presented to his Majesty, and orders given to Garter King-at-Arms to pass the diploma of their office for it."

On the 30th of November, 1663, the first anniversary was celebrated.

" It being St. Andrew's day, who was our patron, each fellow wore a St. Andrew's cross of ribbon on the crown of his hat."

After the election of new officers, the Fellows dined together, his Majesty sending venison. On the 16th of the following November, at Painters' Hall, which had been lent for the meeting, the treasurer, clerks, and messengers were chosen, and the seal appointed, which Evelyn ordered to be " the good Samaritan, with this motto Fac similiter " ; and on the 23rd the statutes, being at length finished, " were read before a full assembly of the Royal Society."