bitants of the place
singing 'God Save the Queen,' 'Rule Britannia,' &c., accompanied with a
band of music. He was then hung on a gallows, shot at, and blown to
pieces with gunpowder, and burnt to ashes, and the company afterwards
spent the evening with every demonstration of loyalty." At such a time
it was easy for even some of our local men of a reforming spirit to be
misunderstood, and the name of "Jacobin" was attached to very worthy
persons in Royston who happened to entertain a little freedom of
opinion.

With the waning of the old Royston Club, another institution had sprung
up which at this time reflected the life of the place in a manner
which, while it was highly creditable to the intellectual life of the
townspeople, was, on the other hand, open to the suspicion of
representing what were called "dangerous principles" in the estimation
of those belonging to the old order. This was the Royston Dissenting
Book Club, which played an important part as a centre of mental
activity during the last quarter of the 18th and the first quarter of
the 19th centuries. The Club was an institution, the influence and
usefulness of which were felt and recognised far beyond the place of
its birth, and brought some notable men within the pale of its
activity. It was founded on the 14th December, 1761, the first
meetings being held at the Green Man, then and for many years
afterwards one of the foremost {27} inns in the town. Among the
earliest members of the Club occur the names of the Rev. Robert Wells,
Joseph Porter, John Fordham, Edward Fordham, George Fordham, Valentine
Beldam, James Beldam, John Wylde, Thomas Bailey, John Butler, Wm.
Coxall, and Edward Rutt. While the circulation of books amongst its
members was one of the primary objects of the Club--for which purpose
its existence has continued down to the present time--it was chiefly as
an intellectual forum or debating club that it is of interest here to
notice. From this point of view it fairly reflects the influential
position of the dissenting body in Royston towards the end of the last
century, and that growing tendency to the discussion of abstract
principles in national affairs which prevailed more or less from the
French Revolution to the Reform Bill, but especially during the last
few years of the last century.

In Henry Crabb Robinson's Diary, for the year 1796, there occurs this
reference to the great debates at the Club's half-yearly meetings:--

"