| Description | Present at the Council: The President; Lord Bishop of Salisbury; SSir John Lowther; Sir Paul Neile; Sir William Petty; Dr Needham; Mr Daniel Colwall; Mr Abraham Hill; Mr Henry Oldenbuerg
The Council again considered the necessity of collecting the arrears, and voted that the following order should be delivered to such members as are in arrears [Order listed]. Also declared that such of the Fellows who shall neither make payment for their arrears not give Bond as previousl described shall be deemed to have deserted the Society and be proceeded agaist according to the Statutes, and that the Society will proceed to a legal recovery of the arrears.
Order signed by Lord Brouncker, the Bishop fo Salisbury, Sir John Lowther, Sir Paul Neile, Sir William Petty, Daniel Colwall, Abraham Hill, Henry Oldenburg. Dr Needham went away before signing.
Ordered that copies be made of the Statute for Election, of that for payment, and also of the Obligation subscribed by every Fellow at his admission, and the Committees named int he former Order, be given such copies to be shewn to those to whom they shall make application.
Ordered that the Committees be asked to apply themselves by Letter to those that are in the Country, and others that they cannot have easy access to.
Resolved that if any Fellow shall be ejected on this occasion, the cause shall be recorded.
Ordered that Mr Boyle, Sir William Petty, Sir Christopher Wrent, Dr Goddard, Dr Grew and Mr Hook be asked to draw up a list of considerable experiments to be tried before the Society, and to prepare apparatus necessary for performing them on all occasions.
Sir William Petty was asked to take particular care of seeing this order put into effect.
Some Fellows names did not appear in the Journal at the time of their admission, such as the Earl of Anglesey, Sir J Birkinhead, Sir Robert Harley and Mr Thomas Harley, so it was ordered that the printed yearly Lists of the Society should be checked to see what year those members were printed the first time, so their accounts could be drawn up accurately.
Afterwards it was thought the Council should meet in some other place, to avoid disturbing the Earl Marshall too long, and then distinguish in several columns the Fellows of the Society, as to whether they constantly pay or not pay, and of such as are Honorary, Absent, Excused, Doubtful.
This was accordingly done by Sir John Lowther, Sir William Petty, Mr Colwall, Mr Hill, Mr Hook, and Oldenburg who found 53 Fellows who pay well, 79 who do not, and 14 absent in the country. They resolved to apply themselves with all possible speed to the 79 and therefore required the copies of the previously mentioned Statutes be made speedily and the names of the 79 fairly written out with the arrears due by everyone, so that a letter could be drafted by Henry Oldenburg to be sent by the Committees to the absent with all possible safety, informing them of the Council's Order to collect the arrears and askeing those that are concerned of giving their positive answer by the next post to Mr Oldenbur. |