Penn, Collinson and the Royal Society

Abstract

PENN, COLLINSON AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY By Henry J. Cadbury IN WRITING on "William Penn and the Royal Society" in this Bulletin,1 Luella M. Wright referred to a forthcoming article by Dr. Raymond P. Stearns of the University of Illinois on "Colonial Fellows of the Royal Society in London, 1661-1788." That article was set in type in 1939 at Bruges, for publication in the eighth volume of Osiris. When the Germans overran Belgium it was supposed that the plates were destroyed. Therefore after a time Dr. Stearns's paper was offered to The William and Mary Quarterly where it was published in 1946.a Now word is received3 that Osiris was not destroyed but that the eighth volume will appear shortly containing the same article.4 This article adds nothing significant about Penn's membership and it lists apparently only one other colonial Fellow who was a Friend, John Coakley Lettsom, M.D. (1744-1815), elected in 1773, who "though he resided in England for most of his life, always considered himself a West Indian and was well-known to many colonials who visited London, particularly Benjamin Franklin." It does, however, underline the influence of an English Quaker Fellow in fostering the growth of colonial scientific interest . Dr. Stearns says: Last to be listed herein and probably the most influential of the Fellows of the Royal Society who encouraged scientific investigations in the American, colonies was Peter Collinson. A wealthy business man with extensive mercantile connections in the New World, Collinson devoted much of his energy and wealth to the collection and classification of scientific data from all parts of the world. His early religious affiliation with the Society of Friends appears to have stimulated scientific intercourse with Quakers in Pennsylvania and Maryland, but his insatiate desire for accurate information led him to correspond with many others as well. He was financial benefactor of the Library Society of Philadelphia [sic: should be Library Company of Philadelphia] and friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose interest in electrical experimentation he greatly 1 Bulletin of Friends Historical Association, vol. 30 (1941), pp. 8-10. 2 Third Series, vol. 3 (1946), pp. 208-268. 3 Ibid., p. 457. 4 Vol. 8, pp. 72-121. 19 20 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION stimulated. Collinson's colonial correspondents included nearly all the most prominent colonial scientists, both amateur and professional, of the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Besides Franklin, James Logan, Christopher Witt, Dr. John Mitchell, William Byrd, Dr. John Kearsley, Isham Randolph, Dr. Cadwallader Colden, and John Bartram were Collinson 's regular correspondents in scientific matters over a period of about twenty-five years. The Royal Society had no other member so active in promoting the introduction and development of scientific learning in the New World ; and many colonial Fellows of the Royal Society in the list which follows immediately owed their election entirely or in part to Peter Collinson's efforts on their behalf.5 As for William Penn's membership some further remarks may be added. The Record of the Royal Society of London on page 384 of its list of Fellows, published in 1940, duly notes Penn's election thus: 1681 9 Nov. Penn, William (Founder of Pennsylvania). Similar was the entry in the third edition, 1912, but the second edition of 1901 did not contain the words "Founder of Pennsylvania " and the first edition of 1897 published no list of Fellows at all. Norman Penney writing in 1909 used the 1901 edition of the Record and was therefore justified in asking who this William Penn was.8 There was, however, even then in print an early identification of the name. "Brief Lives," chiefly of Contemporaries , set down by John Aubrey between the Years 1669 and 1696 includes under the year 1681 in its valuable brief life of William Penn this sentence, He was chosen (ballotted) November 9th, nemine contradicente, admitted Fellow of the Royal Societie, London, with much respecte.7 This interesting life of Penn was not included in the earlier less complete and less accurate publication of Aubrey's Lives in the second volume of Letters Written by Eminent Persons . . . and Lives of Eminent Men (London, 1813). John...