Committee and Officers of the Royal Literary Fund (active 1790)

The Literary Fund was administered by a Committee of subscribers, who determined at their monthly meetings whether the authors who applied to the Fund were of sufficient literary merit to receive aid and decided the quantities of aid that they were given. The Committee also promoted and fundraised for the Fund and made decisions on its governance, although some of these latter functions were carried out by sub-committees. Applicants for aid often wrote to the Committee, collectively or individually, to plead their cases, particularly before the institution of the office of Secretary of the Literary Fund in 1836. In the early years of the Fund the Committee was overseen by a Council of former Committee members, but this body slowly reduced in importance until it lost its power to meet as a result of a drafting error in the amended Fund Charter of 1847. Details of the Committee’s business can be found in the Fund’s Minute Books (see Loan 96 RLF 2). These books also contain complete lists of who was present at each meeting.

The membership of the Committee could be quite large and volatile, with some men (the Committee was exclusively male from the Fund’s inception until the appointment of first woman, Rose Macaulay, in 1946) serving for a very short time and others for several decades. Presented below are lists of the Committee’s major officers – the President of the Fund and its Treasurers and Registrars – from 1790 to 1918. Full lists of all Committee members can be found in the Fund’s Annual Reports (see Loan 96 RLF 3).

Presidents

The President of the Literary Fund was usually a member of the nobility or an exalted public figure whose role was to lend legitimacy to the Fund and promote it in society. Some Presidents were quite closely involved with the running of the Fund (as indicated by their frequent appearances in the archive), while others did little more than lend their names.

The following list is chronological.

1799-1801 – John Stuart, Marquess of Bute

1801-1838 – Sir Edward Adolphus St Maur, Duke of Somerset

1838-1863 – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marquess of Lansdowne

1863-1875 - Philip Henry Stanhope, Earl Stanhope

1875-1893 – Edward Henry Stanley, Earl of Derby

1893-1903 – Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, Earl of Crewe (later Marquess)

1903 – William Edward Hartpole Lecky

1903-1922 – Hallam Tennyson, Baron Tennyson

Officers

There were two principal official positions on the Committee of the Literary Fund: Treasurers and Registrars. At any one time the society’s charter precluded their being more than three of either on the Committee. The Treasurers were tasked with keeping the Fund’s accounts and presenting them to the auditors, and sometimes handled matters involving payments to applicants, especially in the Fund’s early years. The Registrars were responsible for keeping the society’s records, again especially before the appointment of the Secretary. Treasurers and Registrars were often among the most active and long-serving members of the Committee; particularly in the early years of the Fund they performed a number of the functions that would later be the preserve of the Secretary, including dealing directly with applicants.

The list below is given in alphabetical order, with the year of the individual’s first appointment to the Committee or Council after a dash, followed by their office and their dates in office.

James Anderson – 1799; Registrar 1807-1823

Charles Baldwin – 1850; Treasurer 1852-1857

Sir Alfred Edmund Bateman – 1899; Treasurer 1904-1929

Robert Bell – 1851; Registrar 1864-1867

Richard Bentley – 1900; Treasurer 1909-1935

Samuel Birch – 1868; Treasurer 1884-1885

Sir Edward Brabrook – 1906; Registrar 1918-1926

Thomas Bracken – 1793; Treasurer 1799-1800

Edward Brooke – 1790; Treasurer 1790-1799

John Britton – 1815; Registrar 1835-1853

John Ilderton Burn – 1817; Treasurer 1825-1836

James Christie – 1812; Registrar 1824-1831

William John Courthope – 1889; Registrar 1894-1909

Sir Henry Craik – 1890; Registrar 1906-1927

Thomas Crofton Croker – 1829; Registrar 1837-1854

George Croly – 1823; Registrar 1827-1836

Thomas Dale – 1790; Registrar 1790-1806

Lockyer Davis – 1790; Registrar 1790-1791

Edward Dicey – 1877; Treasurer 1888-1911

John Dickinson – 1835; Registrar 1855-1868

William Bodham Donne – 1862; Registrar 1868-1875

Sir Henry Ellis – 1816; Treasurer 1836-1869

John Peter Gassiot – 1884; Treasurer 1889-1894

Frederick Waymouth Gibbs – 1865; Treasurer 1886-1889

George Godwin – 1851; Treasurer 1883-1888

John Griffin – 1795; Treasurer 1830-1852

William Henry Harrison – 1832; Registrar 1853-1874

Sir Richard Rivington Holmes – 1900; Treasurer 1905-1910

Sir Sidney Lee – 1895; Registrar 1907-1926

Lord John Manners (later Duke of Rutland) – 1846; Treasurer 1878-1893

Sir Theodore Martin – 1862; Registrar 1875-1907

Peter Mellish – 1797; Treasurer 1798-1804

Richard Monckton Milnes (later Baron Houghton) – 1846; Treasurer 1857-1877

Thomas Morris – 1791; Treasurer 1792-1797

John Nichols – 1790; Registrar 1791-1820

John Bowyer Nichols – 1821; Registrar 1821-1863

Frederic Ouvry – 1864; Treasurer 1877-1881

Joseph Charles Parkinson – 1883; Treasurer 1893-1908

William Fraser Rae – 1885; Treasurer 1899-1904

George Ranking – 1793; Treasurer 1804-1824

John Reeves – 1799; Treasurer 1800-1829

Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson – 1870; Registrar 1875-1896

Charles Robert Rivington – 1900; Treasurer 1912-1921

Sir William Smith – 1857; Registrar 1869-1893

Sir William Stirling-Maxwell – 1867; Treasurer 1877-1878

Julian Sturgis – 1888; Registrar 1899-1904

Charles Symmons – 1798; Registrar 1801-1825

Percy Melville Thornton – 1891; Registrar 1901-1917

William Tooke – 1824; Treasurer 1838-1863

Edward Topham – 1790; Treasurer 1790-1791

Anthony Trollope – 1864; Treasurer 1869-1882

Charles Knight Watson – 1874; Treasurer 1894-1899 and Registrar 1897-1899

William Whitelock – 1800; Treasurer 1800-1804

George Woodfall – 1820; Treasurer 1835-1838

Richard Yates – 1799; Treasurer 1804-1834