1751 Lord Charles Cavendish 41 



The autumn of the year 1751 was saddened for the Club 

 by the illness of its esteemed President, Martin Folkes. The 

 following record occurs under date 28th November : 



" The Treasurer acquainted the Society that the President's illness 

 which prevented his coming abroad, was not likely to be soon re- 

 moved and as it was necessary to have some gentleman take the 

 Chair, he believed it would be agreable to the Rt. Honble. Lord 

 Charles Cavendish (who was and acted as Vice President of the 

 Royal Society) to take the same office here, if he were a Member 

 of this Society. But as the usual time for electing Members was 

 not till July, and this being an extraordinary occasion, he moved that 

 the Rt. Honble. Lord Charles Cavendish be now elected a Member of 

 this Society. This was seconded by Dan. Wray Esq. and passed 

 by acclamation nem. con, and the Treasurer was ordered to wait 

 on his Lordship, and acquaint him with his election and desire his 

 company at dinner next Thursday." 



Lord Charles Cavendish was the third son of the second 

 Duke of Devonshire. Possessing a strong bent towards 

 science he quietly and successfully pursued certain lines of 

 original chemical and physical research, though he modestly 

 refrained from publishing the results of his studies. 

 Benjamin Franklin wrote of him : " It were to be 

 wished that this noble philosopher would communicate 

 more of his experiments to the world, as he makes many, 

 and with great accuracy." * He was elected into the 

 Royal Society as far back as the summer of 1727. In his 

 house in Great Marlborough Street he had a laboratory 

 where he carried on his researches. He was the father 

 of Henry Cavendish, one of the most original men of science 

 that Britain has ever produced, of whom much will be said 

 in the following pages. Lord Charles frequently presided 

 at the dinners of the Club, and up to the time of his death 

 in 1783, continued to take an active interest in its welfare. 



A notable guest of the Club this year was the well-known 

 politician Charles Watson- Wentworth (1730-1782), who the 

 year before had become Marquis of Rockingham. In his 

 youth he had served against the Jacobite insurgents, but 



1 Works, Boston 1856, vol. v. p. 383; quoted by J. Clerk Maxwell in 

 The Electrical Researches of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, 1879, p. i. 



