Honorary Director of Society’s Shows. 
7 
At the Council meeting a few days later, the following 
autograph letter from the Queen was read : — 
“Windsor Castle, 
“ July 2, 1889. 
“ It gave me very great pleasure to visit the Show of the Agricultural 
Society of which I am this year the President, and I can assure you that I was 
extremely gratified with this magnificent Exhibition. I must thank the 
Council for the care and attention they have devoted to this work which has 
been so successful, and I am especially anxious to convey my acknowledgements 
to Sir Jacob Wilson and Mr. Ernest Clarke for their exertions in organising 
this Show. 
“Victoria R.I.” 
Sir Jacob continued in office for three years longer, when, 
owing to impaired health, he found himself compelled to resign 
the post of Honorary Director. At the Council Meeting held 
on December 7, 1892, the Duke of Westminster (President) 
read a letter from Sir Jacob, addressed to the Secretary, 
containing his resignation of office, and the Duke of Richmond 
and Gordon expressed the feelings of the Council in the 
following admirable speech, which I may be allowed to repro- 
duce here, although it appeared in the Journal at the time. 1 
I am gratified at being selected by my colleagues to propose a resolution to 
do honour to a very old friend with whom I have been associated in a variety 
of capacities for a great many years. It is needless that I should say very much 
in praise of Sir Jacob Wilson in addressing the members of the Council of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, because he is well known to all, and intimately 
known to a great number. The services which Sir Jacob has rendered, not only 
to this Society, but to the public at large, on every occasion when they have 
needed to consult him as Honorary Director of our Country Meetings, have 
been invaluable. His courtesy and urbanity under all circumstances are 
familiar to all, and his good humour has never been known to fail. Whether 
under the hot burning sun of the Windsor Meeting, or among the swamps of 
the disastrous Show at Kilburn — when we walked about the Showyard on 
planks — Sir Jacob Wilson has never once lost his temper or relaxed his 
exertions. 
When, as Lord President of the Council, I was instrumental in the intro- 
duction of the Cattle Diseases Bill, I found the very greatest assistance from 
the advice of Sir Jacob Wilson, as well as from my lamented friend, the late 
Mr. Thomas Booth ; and in the deliberations of the Royal Commission on 
Agricultural Depression, of which I had the honour to be Chairman, no one 
gave more valuable assistance than Sir Jacob. I have said it is unnecessary for 
me to recapitulate at any great length the services which Sir Jacob Wilson 
has rendered to the Royal Agricultural Society, because they are so well 
known. But I may remind you that his first appearance at the Society’s 
Shows was at Carlisle in 1855, thirty-seven years ago, and he has, with only 
one or two exceptions, been present at each subsequent Meeting to the 
present day. He became a member of the Royal Agricultural Society on 
December 5, 1860, and he was first engaged in an official capacity at our 
Shows as Judge of Steam Cultivators at the Worcester Meeting of 1863, now 
nearly thirty years back. He was elected a Member of Council on May 22, 
1865, and is now the senior ordinary Member of Council. He was appointed a 
Steward of Stock in 1869, and acted in that capacity at the Manchester 
(1869), Oxford (1870), Wolverhampton (1871), and Cardiff (1872) Meetings. 
i 
See Journal R.A.S.E., Vol. 53, 1892, pp. clxxxiv., cxcv. 
