Origin of Royal Society Club j 



Church Yard and desired Dr. Halley to go with him there. He and 

 others consented and they then began to have a little meat. On 

 Dr. Halley's Death, Martin Folkes took the Chair. 



" They afterwards removed to the Mitre for the convenience of 

 the situation with respect to the Royal Society, and as It was near 

 Crane Court and numbers wished to become Members, It was neces- 

 sary to give it a form. 



" The number was fixed at Forty Members, one of whom was to 

 be Treasurer and Secretary and three official Members, Secretaries 

 of the Royal Society. 



TOASTS. 



The King King of Poland l 



The Queen The President (if absent) 



Arts and Sciences Lord Charles Cavendish 



Royal Philosophers." 



In printing for the first time this communication of Sir 

 Joseph Ayloffe made in 1776, Admiral Smyth pointed out 

 that it contains some obvious inaccuracies, yet he was 

 disposed to accept it as substantially trustworthy and to 

 regard the Royal Society Club as having been actually 

 established by Dr. Halley. 



The document purports to have been communicated by 

 its writer in 1776, that is, some thirty or forty years after 

 the occurrence of the incidents to which it refers. It was 

 obviously written from recollection, and without reference 

 to authorities by which lapses of memory could be checked. 



The meetings of the Royal Society took place on Thurs- 

 day and not on Tuesday. Sir Joseph Ayloffe styles himself 

 " an original member." But the Club minute-book clearly 

 shows that he was elected on 23rd August 1744 and subse- 

 quently lost his membership from non-attendance, his place 

 being rilled up on 27th July I749- 2 He says in his memo- 

 randum that the meetings " began to take place about 

 1731." But the evidence quoted above shows that there 

 were dinners and suppers of the Fellows of the Royal Society 

 long before that year. Sir Joseph Ayloffe was elected into 



1 How this monarch in particular came to be one of the Club's toasts 

 is suggested in the record of the year 1754. 



2 He was afterwards balloted for and re-elected into the Club on 25th 

 July 1771. 



