The officers of the Society (1662-1860)

A well-planned administration is indispensable for any new institution if it is to deal with its finances and membership, to record the communications received and to register correspondence with other bodies of like interests efficiently. With aims so wide in scope as the ‘Improvement of Natural Knowledge’ the amount of routine work was bound to be large even in the Society’s early days and to increase rapidly, but the provision of an adequate administrative staff to deal with it was for a good many years more than the Royal Society’s meagre resources could afford. Its officers as well as the salaried staff were overworked, and it was not until the early part of the eighteenth century that a satisfactory system had been gradually developed. For two centuries the Fellowship consisted for the greater part of men who had no scientific knowledge nor any real interest in the advancement of science so that for many years, in fact until after 1847, nearly two-thirds of the members of the Council belonged to this group. It was left for the most part to the officers, if they were scientific men, to see that the claims of science were not overlooked. In the Charters it is laid down that the President, the Treasurer and the two Secretaries are the Officers of the Society, and that they are to be elected by the Fellows at each Anniversary Meeting when the Council for the coming twelve-month is chosen. To them is entrusted the execution of the Society’s policy and such action as may be decided upon by the Council from time to time, or by the Fellows at their meetings. They had therefore to keep in close touch with the current business of the Society, to report upon it to the Council and to assist that body in arriving at their decisions. The Council might delegate to them power to deal with various matters, and occasions arose from time to time when they had to act to the best of their own judgment, reporting to the Council at its next meeting how such situations had been dealt with.