| Description | A ruled ledger containing an alphabetical list of Fellows of the Royal Society, with financial contributions recorded against their names. Three additional individuals are appended: two Fellows elected in 1668, John Colwall and Sir John Banks; with Captain Silas Taylor.
Headed: 'A LIST Of the Fellows of the Royal Society containing also the several sums of Money contributed by them towards the building of a College for the said Society. On the Ground given by the Honble. Henry Howard of Norfolk for that purpose'.
The original Arundel House. owned by the Dukes of Norfolk, was demolished around 1680-1682. It was home to the Royal Society's meetings, in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London and the source of the Arundel Library. In 1668, the then-Duke, Henry Howard, offered a portion of the nearby land to the Royal Society for the construction of a College building, shortly after the abortive scheme to use Chelsea College for that purpose. The Arundel House scheme was also dropped.
The manuscript records twenty five-donations of money, amounting to over £1,000. Individual pledges came from from William, Viscount Brouncker (£100), from Robert Boyle (£50), Henry Oldenburg (£10); Samuel Pepys (£40) Seth Ward (£100) Francis Willughby (£80) John Wilkins (£50) and others. Against Henry Howard is recorded 'The Ground to build upon'; and against John Evelyn 'fifty thousand bricks'. Evelyn's diary records staking out the ground on 24 January 1668 and the brick subscription on 2 April 1668.
The printed 'A LIST of the ROYAL SOCIETY...' by John Martyn at the Bell without Temple-bar, 1667, is pasted at into the end of the volume. This has a few manuscript annotations, noting what are presumably early donations, before the formal ledger was commenced. Apart from the gift of land, the donations of William Brouncker, Seth Ward are noted, with that of James Hayes (£40). |