152 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1781 



1781. The Annual General Meeting in 1781, held on 26th 

 July, was attended by twenty-five members, under the chair- 

 manship of Sir Joseph Banks, who had now been created a 

 baronet. The expenses for the past year were reported to 

 amount to 19 6s. 5d., leaving in the hands of the Treasurer a 

 balance of 6 i8s. 8d. The death of Sir Joseph Ayloffe was 

 announced. Two members had not attended for more than 

 a year John Cuthbert and Rev. Francis Wollaston. The 

 meeting resolved that there were three vacancies. These 

 were filled by the election of the Rev. Samuel Hemming, 

 Robert Banks Hodgkinson and William Seward. The first 

 of these new members became F.R.S. in 1776 ; the second 

 in 1778. William Seward was an accomplished man of 

 letters, a friend of Samuel Johnson and the Thrale circle, 

 and mingled in the best literary society of the time. He 

 published a valuable work with the title " Anecdotes of 

 some distinguished Persons." He would introduce into the 

 Club a beneficial literary element. He had become a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society in 1779. 



At the same General Meeting it was resolved that the 

 price to be paid by the members for each dinner should 

 be five shillings, 1 that the Treasurer should settle with the 

 Master of the Tavern what proportion of this sum should 

 be given to the waiters, and that the gratuity to the cooks 

 should be discontinued. It was further resolved to rescind 

 the order of July 27, 1775, providing that no stranger should 

 be admitted on two successive Thursdays. 



The foreign visitors this year included several who were 

 shortly before or shortly afterwards elected into the Royal 

 Society. Anthony de Wevelinchoven, who dined with the 

 Club on nth January, became F.R.S. on the 5th April. 

 Charles Maria Lewis, Count of Barbiano and Belgiojoso, was 

 made F.R.S. on 3rd May and was a guest of the Club a fort- 

 night afterwards. Baron Grothusen, M. Cederberg, M. Hey- 

 denstam, M. Meuret and others whose names, as written in 

 the registers, cannot be clearly deciphered, were likewise 



x lt was four shillings in 1784 and had previously been three (pp. 162, 

 171, 182). 



