2O2 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1795 



The Treasurer's statement showed that his disbursements 

 to complete payments of tavern bills since the previous 

 Anniversary had amounted to 41 145. and that a balance 

 of 22 45. 4d. remained in his hands. A call of one guinea 

 from each member was ordered. From the official account- 

 books it appears that the total number that dined at the 

 Club since the previous Anniversary was 532, made up 

 of 473 members and 59 visitors. 



By the death of John Walsh a vacancy arose in the 

 membership, which was filled by the election of John Sym- 

 mons. The new member had become a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society in the summer of the previous year. 



A noteworthy incident deserves to be mentioned here. 

 For the first time in its own records the Club was this year 

 called by the name which it now bears. In the Account- 

 book for 1794-5 a list of members is thus designated by 

 the Treasurer " List of the Members of the Royal Society 

 Club subsequent to Annual meeting on the 2d July 1795." 

 The name is continued in subsequent Account-books. Up 

 to the end of the Treasurership of William Russell, that is 

 until 1787-8, the Account-book was that of " the Club of 

 Royal Philosophers/' 



There are no foreign visitors of note in the records for this 

 year. Of the home guests one or two may be mentioned. 

 The President introduced " Mr. Petrie " perhaps the anti- 

 quary, Henry Petrie, who afterwards succeeded to the 

 keepership of the Tower Records. Henry Cavendish invited 

 Henry Penruddock Wyndham who, having been mayor of 

 Salisbury and Sheriff of Wiltshire, had devoted much atten- 

 tion to the antiquities and topography of the county which 

 he afterwards represented for some years in Parliament. 

 Moreover he had travelled in France and Italy and a more 

 unusual feat had climbed Etna. Count von Rumford 

 towards the end of the year dined twice with the Club, 

 the first time on the invitation of Sir Charles Blagden, 

 the second time on that of the President. This remarkable 

 man, Benjamin Thompson by name, was born in Massa- 

 chusetts in 1753. When the colonists were contending 



