828 History of Scawby Credit Society. [Jan., 



of management must be carried to a Reserve Fund, which 

 can be drawn upon only to meet exceptional losses by vote 

 of the General Meeting of the members. Only persons (male 

 or female (owning or occupying land or residing in the parish 

 of Scawby or its immediate neighbourhood can be members, 

 and each applicant must be approved by the Committee. 

 Each member has only one vote, and all the members are 

 liable to an equal levy, should funds be required to make up 

 any deficiency in the working of the Society — that is, all 

 the members are equally, jointly, and severally liable for 

 any debts incurred by the Society, and no limit has been fixed 

 for their liability. There are no shares and no share-capital. 



The Society started with 9 members, but by the end of 

 1895 there were 20. The number of members has since risen 

 gradually until at the end of 19 10 there were 32, of whom 

 1 1 were small farmers, 3 market gardeners, 3 blacksmiths, 

 and 2 carpenters, besides a butcher, a horse-dealer, a carter, 

 a woodman, a miner, a foreman, and 2 labourers, most of 

 whom, in addition to their main occupations, cultivate small 

 holdings or allotments. The affairs of the Society are 

 managed by the Chairman and a Committee of 6, annually 

 elected by ballot at the general meeting. They at present 

 consist of 3 small-farmers, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a 

 woodman. Mr. Spencer, the rate-collector of the parish, has 

 from the first, as Secretary and Treasurer, kept the accounts 

 and minutes without any salary. Mr. Nelthorpe has been 

 Chairman of the Society since its foundation. 



One of the first requisites for the working of the Society 

 was the raising of money to be lent to the members. With 

 this object the Chairman offered to guarantee ^100, and 

 was joined by Mr. Yerburgh (now Chairman of the Agri- 

 cultural Organisation Society), who proposed to guarantee 

 ,-£50, and by the Rev. H. F. Oliver, the Vicar, who offered 

 either to guarantee £$0 or to lend the Society ^100 at 3 J 

 per cent. It was afterwards found that the rules as they 

 then stood (they have been altered since) prevented the 

 adoption of this system of guarantees, and the ultimate 

 arrangement made was that an account was opened with the 

 local branch of a Joint Stock Bank, to which the Chairman, 

 both on his own behalf and as representing the Society, gave 



