18th century European scholarly societies and academies/Peterborough Gentlemen's Society

Name of Society: Peterborough Gentleman's Society

Alternate Name(s): Peterborough Book Society (starting 1820)

Country: England

City: Peterborough

Active dates: 1730 - 1899

The Peterborough Gentlemen's society, known sometimes as the Peterborough Book society after 1820, was founded by Reverend Timothy Neve. This societes' mission statement was 'improvement of literature and promotion of friendship and good neighbourhood'. They began as some what of a book club but once they started meeting less and less regularly after 1760 and began focusing on buying for the society books they became a kind of lending library, hence how they got their alternative name in 1820. They helped establish a library in Peterborough before they had low membership troubles near the end of the 19th century. Eventually these membership troubles became too much and the society broke apart with all of the books being transfered into the public library system.