jo Presidentship of the Earl of Macclesfield 1759 



1759. On July 26, 1759, the Annual General Meeting was 

 attended by thirteen members, James Burrow being in the 

 Chair. The Treasurer reported that the expenses had been 

 3 75. 6d., leaving in his hands a balance of 2 55. id. 



Two vacancies were announced owing to the death of 

 Dr. Clephane and Arthur Pond, and a third arose from the 

 non-attendance of William Tempest. These places were 

 filled by ballot, and the Rev. Erasmus Saunders, D.D., 

 the Rev. John Ross, D.D., and the Earl of Marchmont 

 were elected. Dr. Saunders was a divine of Jesus College, 

 Oxford, and prebendary of St. David's, who had been elected 

 into the Royal Society in 1759. Dr. Ross, of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, after holding various preferments, be- 

 came Bishop of Exeter in 1778. He was made F.R.S. in 

 1758. The Earl of Marchmont, who has already been men- 

 tioned in these pages as a frequent visitor and a donor of 

 salmon to the Club, was now chosen to be one of its members. 



The war with France, waged on land in North America, 

 and at sea in various regions, from 1755 to 1763, cut off 

 all intercourse of a friendly kind between the natives of the 

 two countries, and its effects are marked in the annals of 

 the Royal Philosophers by the general absence of foreign 

 guests from their dinners during this interval. Among the 

 English guests the name of the Earl of Huntingdon occurs 

 this year more than once. It was of him that Lord Chester- 

 field wrote that next to his own son, he was " the truest object 

 of my affection and esteem and who (I am proud to say it) 

 calls me and considers me as his adopted father. His parts 

 are as quick as his knowledge is extensive." x In later years 

 he was a frequent visitor, sometimes contributing venison 

 to the good cheer of the Club. Another peer among the 

 visitors was the Earl of Rosebery of that day, whose name 

 is found in the Register under that of Lord Willoughby on 

 5th April. Lord Charles Cavendish dined twice with the 

 Club and on each occasion his son Henry accompanied 

 him. Benjamin Franklin likewise continued to appear at 

 intervals among the philosophers. 



1 Chesterfield Letters (Lord Mahon's Edit. 1845), vol. ii. p. 38. 



