Derby Philosophical Society
Encyclopedia
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
founded in 1783 by Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
. The club had many notable members and also offered the first institutional library in Derby that was available to some section of the public.
History
Clubs and societies were one of the most important aspects of public and semi-public life in Georgian BritainGeorgian era
The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...
, although women were excluded from many of the more formal. Many took a keen interest in science, or natural philosophy as it would have been called, and so should be seen as important local centres for the production and dissemination of ideas as part of the European enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. Some were informal associations but others were highly organised with rules and regulations and sometimes their own rooms or buildings. Quite a few acquired collections of books, scientific instruments or natural history exhibits, either through purchase or bequest.
A Derby Philosophical club or society met in the eighteenth century and may have included amongst its members individuals such as John Whitehurst
John Whitehurst
John Whitehurst FRS , of Cheshire, England, was a clockmaker and scientist, and made significant early contributions to geology. He was an influential member of the Lunar Society.- Life and work :...
, the Lunar Society
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...
member, before he moved to London in 1775. The society was meeting until at least 1779 although other clubs or coteries existed in the town prior to this. Another of these, also associated with Whitehurst seems to have included the artist Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....
, his friend Peter Perez Burdett
Peter Perez Burdett
Peter Perez Burdett was an 18th century cartographer, surveyor, artist, and draughtsman originally from Eastwood in Essex where he inherited a small estate and the name Perez from his maternal grandfather who was the clergyman there.He would have been notable just for his many appearances in...
and Rev. Joshua Winter of All Saints Church.
The Derby Philosophical Society was started by Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
and a group of his associates in 1783 just after he moved to Derby from Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
, and after living for a short period at Radburn Hall with his new wife Elizabeth and her family. The club was formally inaugurated in 1784 at Darwin's house in Full Street, Derby. He delivered an address to the members which explained what he hoped the society would achieve, including the acquisition of a library and perhaps the production of publications. It seems that he also hoped the Derby Society would be able to hold joint meetings with the 'Lunatics'.
The purposes of the club were several. However the club did create a notable collection of books and entertained guests, some of whom are listed in the records. Its members participated in a collective translation of the works of Linnaeus from Latin to English. The translation of A System of Vegetables, annotated by the most eminent of them, was the first book where the name of Erasmus Darwin ever appeared.
The society met at the King's Head Inn in the Cornmarket in Derby not far from Darwin's house at 3, Full Street.
The founding members were at various times said to be seven, eight or ten people listed as Richard French
Wrightson Mundy
Wrightson Mundy was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1737 and MP for Leicestershire in 1747.-Biography:Wrightson married Anne daughter of Robert Burdett and sister of Sir Robert Burdett, Bt of Foremarke Hall, Derbyshire by whom he had one son and four daughters...
, Sneyd, Dr John Hollis Pigot
Elizabeth Bridget Pigot
Elizabeth Bridgot Pigot was a correspondent, friend and biographic source for Lord Byron.-Biography:Pigot was born on 20 September 1783 in St Werbergh's parish in Derby to Dr John Hollis Pigot and his wife Margaret . Elizabeth's father, John, was a physician and one of the founders of Derby...
, Dr John Beridge, Dr Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Gisborne, Mr. Fox and William Strutt
William Strutt (inventor)
William Strutt FRS, was a cotton spinner in Belper, England.-Biography:Strutt was the first son of Jedediah Strutt and, after a good education, joined his father's business at the age of fourteen...
. However Gisborne and Sneyd did not live in Derby so this leaves seven plus Erasmus Darwin who is considered the main reason for the club's existence. The records of the club exist but frequently refer to people only by surname so researchers have had to consider which particular person was intended. The purpose of the club involved meeting socially but there was a variety of interests although many of the members, like Darwin, were associated with medicine. Later members included Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
, the Rev. William Pickering
William Pickering
William Pickering may refer to:*William Pickering , Western Australian state MP*William Pickering , director of the National Reconnaissance Office in Dan Brown's book Deception Point...
, the Rev. Charles Hope, Dr Peter Crompton, Erasmus Darwin Jr, Robert Darwin
Robert Darwin
Dr Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. was an English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was a member of the influential Darwin-Wedgwood family.-Biography:...
, Richard Leaper and Henry Hadley, Mr Haden, Mr Fowler, Mr Johnson, Sacheverell Pole, William Duesbury jr
Royal Crown Derby
The Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Company is a porcelain manufacturer, based in Derby, England. The company, particularly known for its high-quality bone china, has produced tableware and ornamental items since approximately 1750...
, Robert Bage
Robert Bage (novelist)
Robert Bage was an English businessman and novelist.Born in Darley Abbey, near Derby, Bage was the son of a paper-maker and was himself a papier. For a time he lived in Elford, Staffordshire...
and Richard Archdale. About half of the membership was medical like William Brooks Johnson MD, but others included men of great influence like Sir Robert Wilmot
Sir Robert Wilmot, 2nd Baronet
Sir Robert Wilmot Bart was the natural son of Sir Robert Wilmot the first baronet of Osmaston Hall, who was the Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.-Biography:...
, the engineer Jedediah Strutt
Jedediah Strutt
Jedediah Strutt or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelt it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England.Strutt and his brother-in-law William Woollat developed an attachment to the stocking frame that allowed the production of ribbed stockings...
, the poet and gentleman Sir Brooke Boothby
Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet
Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet was an English linguist, translator, minor poet and landowner in Derbyshire. He was part of the intellectual and literary circle of Lichfield which included Anna Seward and Erasmus Darwin. He welcomed Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Ashbourne circles in 1766 when the...
, the chemist Charles Sylvester
Charles Sylvester
Charles Sylvester was a chemist and inventor born in Sheffield, United Kingdom. He worked on galvanization, public building heating and sanitation, and railroad friction amongst other things.-Biography:...
, and landowners Charles Hurt, Reverend D'Ewes Coke
D'Ewes Coke
The Reverend D'Ewes Coke was rector of Pinxton and South Normanton in Derbyshire, a colliery owner and philanthropist.He married Hannah, heiress of George Heywood of Brimington.-Background:...
and Thomas Evans. Crompton, Leaper, and C. S. Hope all went on to become Mayor of Derby, and the first Lord Belper
Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper
Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper PC, FRS , was a British Liberal Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1852 to 1854 under Lord Aberdeen.-Background and education:...
was among the later members.
William Strutt and Richard Forester were both to go on to be Presidents of the society following Darwin's death in 1803. Strutt had been a founding member and Forester was the son of Richard French, another founding member. The local schoolmaster and philosopher William George Spencer was secretary of the society from 1815 and his son the philosopher Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
gained much inspiration from Derby literary and scientific culture. Significantly it was Spencer who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest
Survival of the fittest
"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase originating in evolutionary theory, as an alternative description of Natural selection. The phrase is today commonly used in contexts that are incompatible with the original meaning as intended by its first two proponents: British polymath philosopher Herbert...
", after he read Darwin's grandson's work on evolution. Another notable associate of the society was Abraham Bennet
Abraham Bennet
Abraham Bennet FRS was an English clergyman and physicist, the inventor of the gold-leaf electroscope and developer of an improved magnetometer...
although he was never a member, unlike James Pilkington, the radical minister and the author of a A View of Derbyshire.
During Darwin's time as the leading light of the society he had a house on Full Street in Derby. Although this house is now demolished a plaque was placed on the site in 2002 to recognise Darwin's contribution and that he had founded the Derby Philosophical Society.
The Derby Philosophical Society was just one of a number of literary and scientific associations that existed in the town during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reflecting the importance of public scientific culture in the English provinces at this time. Other examples include a Derby Literary and Philosophical Society c1808-1816, the Derby Mechanics' Institute, the Derby Town and County Museum and Natural History Society founded in 1834, and another Literary and Scientific Society that flourished during the 1840s and 1850s. To these should be added the innovative Derbyshire General Infirmary opened in 1810 and John Claudius Loudon's Derby Arboretum opened in 1840, both of which were strongly associated with the activities of the Derby philosophers and helped to create a public platform for science.
In 1858, the Derby Philosophical Society moved to a house on the Wardwick in Derby as it merged with the Derby Town and County Museum
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Derby Museum and Art Gallery was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collection includes a whole gallery displaying the paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby; there is also a large...
and the Natural History Society. This move included the society's library of 4,000 volumes, Mathematical and scientific apparatus and its collection of fossils.