The diaries of John Byrom, M. A., F. R. S., and their relation to the pre-history of the Royal Society Club

Abstract

The first record for Thursday, 27 October 1743,is an isolated entry written on a sheet of paper pasted on the inside cover of Minute Book No. 1; it lists the names of eight Members who each paid six shillings for the month to Mr Colebrook, the Treasurer, for four dinners to be ordered at i/6d.per head. The Treasurer had to order each Thursday ‘a dinner for six and pay nine shillings certain’ to the innkeeper of the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street; ‘as many more as come to pay one-and-sixpence per head each’ but if more than six come, ‘the deficiency to be paid out of this Fund of -£2.8.0.’, the amount he had received that day. O f these eight men six were Fellows of the Royal Society and the other two became Fellows later.