London Institution - Foundation

Foundation

The first recorded meeting to discuss the idea of an Institution was arranged by Sam Woods on 27 March 1805, and held at Mr Bodley’s house in Lombard Street A further meeting was held the following month at the George & Vulture Tavern in George Yard, Lombard Street, when Sir Francis Baring took the chair and at this meeting it was agreed to send an introductory letter signed by William Haseldine Pepys to a number of potential patrons, mostly London bankers and merchants. A more formal meeting took place at 12 noon on 23 May 1805, at the London Tavern, again chaired by Sir Francis Baring, to discuss the practical details that would be involved in setting-up a proper "London Institution". The philosophical aim of the London Institution was "to promote the diffusion of Science, Literature and the Arts", and the objects were to provide

(i) - A Library to contain Works of Intrinsic Value

(ii) - Lectures for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

(iii) - Reading Rooms for the Daily Papers, Periodical Publications, interesting Pamphlets, and Foreign Journals.

The Institution was to consist of a limited number of Proprietors and Life and Annual Subscribers. It was agreed that the motto of the Institution would be Studio fallente laborem and that its purpose would be to procure "the advancement of literature and the diffusion of useful knowledge".

The Institution was established on 18 January 1806, in the house of Sir William Clayton (Lord Mayor of London in the time of Charles II), at 8 Old Jewry in the City of London at an annual rent of £350. It was modelled on the Royal Institution in London's West End. By 21 January 1807, a Royal Charter for the "London Institution for the Promotion of Literature and Useful Knowledge" had been drafted listing the following officers,

President

• Sir Francis Baring Bt, Banker and founder of Barings

Vice-Presidents

• Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet, West Indies merchant and Governor of the Bank of England
• Beeston Long, West Indies merchant and Governor of the Bank of England
• George Hibbert West Indies merchant, botanist and book collector
• John Julius Angerstein, West Indies merchant and art collector

Managers

• Richard Clarke
• Matthew Raine Headmaster of Charterhouse School
• Richard Sharp Banker, Member of Parliament and conversationalist
• John Smith MP Banker and Member of Parliament
• Henry Thornton Banker, Member of Parliament and Abolitionist

Richard Porson, poet and scholar, was unanimously chosen as the first Librarian of the London Institution at a meeting on 22 April 1806. With the position went a salary of £200 per annum, a servant and rent-free accommodation. Thomas Campbell, the Scottish poet, had come to London to be considered for the position and had been 'well received' but rejected. A man of Porson’s eminence seemed a coup for the Institution and shortly afterwards the governors were able to buy the library of the Marquis of Lansdowne. However Porson turned out to be unsuited for the post because of his heavy drinking and untidy ways. As his responsibilities grew in proportion to the Institution’s increasing collection of valuable books he failed to meet the challenge. Before any action needed to be taken, he died in September 1808 shortly after a fit of ‘apoplexy’ in the street that had led to him being anonymously committed to St Martin’s Lane workhouse. William Maltby was chosen as librarian in 1809 to replace him.

Maltby carried out the duties of Librarian for the next twenty-five years. During the years 1806-11 more than £36,000 was spent on books and equipment and it was reported in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1811 that the Institution had collected ..."at a large expense, some of the rarest and most splendid specimens of Typography in the kingdom."

In his Biographical Index of the current House of Commons, J. Wilson cites Richard Sharp as an important figure in the history of this institution and claims that it was "...chiefly owing to his influences and exertions that the London Institute for the improvement of Science and Literature has been established." Many of those who supported the idea of such an educational institution for London were fellow Dissenters who were forbidden to attend Oxford or Cambridge universities because of their religious beliefs.