Macaulay Literary Club
Overview
It is currently unknown if this club was named for Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), possibly as a tribute to him and his influential writing on British history, his death occurring only five years prior to the club’s formation.
To date, we have little information on this group. The Glasgow Post Office directory offers us few details:
‘MACAULAY LITERARY CLUB. Office-Bearers 1864-65. Robert Scott, F.S.A., Edin., president; James Anderson and Eben. Russell, vice-presidents; Peter Moir, 8 Prince Albert Drive, Queen’s Park, secretary; James Beveridge, treasurer; Thomas Carruthers, M.A., John Grafton, and David Wright, directors. The club meets every alternate Saturday during the session (October till April), at 6:30 p.m., in Buchanan’s Hotel, 4 South Portland Street’.
(‘Macaulay Literary Club’, ‘Literary and Scientific Societies’,Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1864, 1865… (Glasgow: William Mackenzie, 1864), p. 90)
Buchanan’s Hotel was located in the south side of the city, just across the River Clyde. The place and earlier time of the group’s meetings as compared to other clubs suggest that the Macaulay club was probably a supper and social club.
Date of Existence
1864?-?
Source of Information
‘Macaulay Literary Club’, ‘Literary and Scientific Societies’,Post Office Glasgow Directory for 1864, 1865… (Glasgow: William Mackenzie, 1864), p. 90
Repository
Mitchell Library
National Library of Scotland
Reference Number –
Additional Notes
The Glasgow Post Office directories are available at the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland. Digitised copies are available through the NLS website: https://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office/index.cfm?place=Gla sgow
Mauchline Society (aka Glasgow- Mauchline Society)
Overview
Mauchline is a town in East Ayrshire. Robert Burns lived there for a time on Mossgiel Farm.
This group is a type of nineteenth-century county association. In the stricter sense, county associations were groups whose members (or whose parents) were former residents of counties across Scotland who had moved to Glasgow. This type of group incorporated elements of a benevolent society in that they could offer a combination of accommodation, advice, referrals, and general assistance to newcomers in the city when they arrived, while also offering aid to widows, unemployed members, or members undergoing financial hardship. In addition, they might offer to provide for the education of their members’ children, or money to support their higher education.
This society was also a Burns club, and its members met at the the Christian Institute (Bothwell Street) in the early twentieth century (at least). (For more information about this institute, see theChristian ‘ Institute‘ on The Glasgow Story website).
In 1897, this was a fairly large group, with a reported 120 members on its roll. This number would fall to 60 in the next year, and reached a low point of ‘about 30 members’ in 1907, before recovering slightly in 1908 (n. 40). In 1904, the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory listed the club’s object as:
‘[…] to afford relief to those in needful circumstances, to obtain situations to persons of good character, and to promote friendly intercourse among those connected with Mauchline in Glasgow; to erect, endow, hold, preserve, and manage the National Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes, Mauchline’.
(‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (January 1904), p. 142)
Date of Existence
1888-1934? (uncertain: date taken from last year info. given in online catalogue)
Source of Information
1. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1897’,in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1897), p. 155;
2. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1898’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation January 1898), p. 142:
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1899’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1899), p. 159;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (January 1904), p. 142;
5. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1906’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1906), p. 151;
6. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1907’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1907), p. 162;
7. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1908’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1908), p. 136;
8. (Mentioned in Minutes of the Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 30 March 1908, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 8 November 1907-5 September 1912, p. 18);
9. ‘Glasgow Mauchline Society’, Glasgow Herald, 9 December 1921, p. 6;
10 .’National Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes, Mauchline, Ayrshire: Catalogue of Exhibits in the Museum Including a History of the Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes’, Ayrshire History
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle, Minutes, and Glasgow Herald)
National Library of Scotland (Annual Burns Chronicle, and Glasgow Herald)
Reference Number
891709 (MLSC) (Minutes)
BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Additional Notes
See also Glasgow and District Burns Club.
‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available throughRobert the Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.
This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.
The Glasgow Herald is available at the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland in both hard copy and microfilm (check libraries for availability in both formats). Digitised issues are also available through theBritish Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Monday Shakspere Club
Overview
According to the 1881 printed list of rules for this group, the group’s object was the study of Shakespeare’s works. The meetings were to alternate between the reading of a play and criticism (i.e. discussion). The meetings in which criticism was to feature would begin with a paper on the play that was previously read.
The entry free upon joining was 2s 6d, and 5s for the year, which made this an expensive club to join. Members would most likely have been from the middle class. Membership was restricted to 20 (later changed to 30), but there were usually less than a dozen attendant at each meeting. Books were bought by the club upon the approval of the majority of the members.
This club was unusual in that it initially had two sessions during the year (the norm was one): meetings were held at 8pm on the first Monday of the month between April and September, and on the first and third Mondays between October and March. Later, the rules were revised, reducing the meetings to one session, with meetings being held only between the months of October and May on the second and fourth Mondays at 8pm.
Date of Existence
10 April 1879-November 1882?
Source of Information
Monday Shakspere Club, Minute Book, 1879-82 (includes printed ‘Rules’, various years, and printed ‘Monthly Abstract of Proceedings’, 9 June 1882)
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections
Reference Number
Baillie’s Library, 35495
Additional Notes
This club should not be confused with the Glasgow Shakspere Club (1838-1850?).
Mosspark Burns Club
Overview
Mosspark is an area of Glasgow located south of Bellahouston Park, in the south side of Glasgow. (For more information on this area, see Irene Maver’s article, No‘ Mean City: 1914 to 1950s. Neighbourhoods: Mosspark‘ on The Glasgow Story website).
There is little currently known about this club. The only information we have comes an entry in the minute book of another Burns club, the Glasgow and District Burns Club, where the club is mentioned.
Date of Existence
1914?-?
Source of Information
(Mentioned in Minutes of Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 3 September 1914, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 12 September 1912 – 30 April 1919, p. 66)
Repository Mitchell Library Special Collections
Reference Number
891709
Additional Notes
See also the Glasgow and District Burns Club.