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The Friendly Society Movement and the Respectability of the Rural Working Class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Evelyn Lord
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Extract

In the introduction to his practical manual on the organisation of friendly societies published in 1851 J.H. James writes:

The character of a nation may be pretty well ascertained from the general features of its public institutions. When these are directed to the morals, social and intellectual training of the human mind, and to the privilege of a cultivation of religious principles we may be sure of the existence of that high degree of buoyancy and healthiness of mental vigour, accompanied by great physical energy not to be found in any other condition of society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , October 1997 , pp. 165 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1997

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References

Notes

1 James, J.H., A Guide to the Formation and Management of Friendly Societies for the Assurance, Investment and Emigration under the Act 13 & 14 Vict. Cap. 115 (London, 1851), p. ix.Google Scholar

2 ibid.

3 Brabrook, E.W., Provident Societies and Industrial Welfare (London, 1898), p. 46.Google Scholar

4 Wilkinson, J. Frome, Mutual Thrift (London, 1891), p. 4.Google Scholar

5 ibid.

6 Thompson, E.P., The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth, 1968), pp. 460–2.Google Scholar

7 Howkins, A., Whitsun in Nineteenth Century Oxfordshire, History Workshop Pamphlets, 8 (1973), p. 5, 18, 23–35.Google Scholar

8 Crossick, G., An Artisan Elite in Victorian Society, Kentish London 1840–1880 (London, 1978)Google ScholarNeave, D., Mutual Aid in the Victorian Countryside, 1830–1914 (Hull, 1991)Google ScholarSupple, B., ‘Legislation and Virtue: An Essay on Working-Class Self-Help and the State in the Early Nineteenth Century’, in McKendrick, N. (ed.), Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society in Honour of J.H. Plumb, (1974), pp. 211–254.Google Scholar

9 Crossick, Artisan Elite; Neave, Mutual Aid; Lord, E., ‘Derbyshire Friendly Societies and the paradox of Thrift’, Journal of Regional and Local Studies, Winter 1996/7Google ScholarGosden, P.J.H., The Friendly Societies in England 1815–1875 (Manchester 1961), pp. 20–24.Google Scholar

10 Ashby, M.K., Joseph Ashby of Tysoe, 1859–1918, (Cambridge, 1961)Google ScholarBee, M., ‘A Friendly Society Case Study: The Compton Pilgrims Benefit Society’, Southern History, 11 (1989), pp. 69–89.Google Scholar

11 Thompson, , The Making, eg. p. 50.Google Scholar

12 British Parliamentary Papers, Royal Commision on Friendly Societies, 4th Report, 1874.

13 Neave, Mutual Aid, p. 86.Google Scholar

14 Derby Local Studies Library, Female Society, Royal Oak Belper, Rule Book, 1833; Upper Swan Friendly Society, Belper, Rule Book, 1820; Allestree Friendly Society Rule Book, 1833.

15 Derby Local Studies Library, Nag's Head Friendly Society, Mickelover, Rule Book, 1834; Allestree Friendly Society Rule Book, 1837.

16 Derby Local Studies Library, Alfreton Friendly Society, Rule Book, 1832.

17 Ashby, , Joseph Ashby, p. 81.Google Scholar

18 Bee, , ‘A Friendly Society Case Study’.Google Scholar

19 Nottinghamshire County Record Office, DD67/1, Rules and Orders of the members of the Annual Female Union Society held at the sign of the Green Dragon, Oxton, Notts., founded 1828, rules published 1884.

20 Derby Local Studies Library Bb334/15430, Articles Made and Agreed by a Friendly Society held at Allestree in the County of Derby, begun 1807, printed 1837 by Chadfield, J., Derby.Google Scholar

21 Derbyshire County Record Office, D662, D1001.

22 Crossick, , Artisan Elite, p. 179.Google Scholar

23 Coates, D., Tunes on a Penny Whistle, A Derbyshire Childhood (Stroud, 1993), pp. 44–48.Google Scholar

24 Mentioned in Ward, T.A., Peeps into the Past (1909), p. 78.Google Scholar

25 Ashby, , Joseph Ashby, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

26 Fuller, M.D., West Country Friendly Societies. An Account of the Village Benefit Clubs and their Brass Pole Heads (Reading, 1964), pp. 90–91Google ScholarHowkins, A., Whitsun in 19th century Oxfordshire, History Workshop Pamphlets, 8 (1973), 20–31: Neave, Mutual Aid, p. 91.Google Scholar

27 Derby Local Studies Library, Allestree Friendly Society, Rule Book, 1837.