Camphill refers to the estate and Camphill House in the south side of Glasgow which were bought by Glasgow City Council in the late nineteenth century. (For more information about this area, see ‘Camphill Park‘ on The Glasgow Story website). The area is now part of Queen’s Park. Members of this society were most likely part of the congregation of the Camphill United Presbyterian Church, located at 20 Balvicar Drive.

There is little currently known about this society. The only evidence we have to date comes from the syllabi of another literary group, the Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Institute, which list the dates in various years on which the Camphill United Presbyterian Church Literary Institute was scheduled to participate in a joint meetings with them (see below).

Date of Existence

1891?-?

Source of Information

1. (Listed as having a joint meeting with the Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Institute, the Pollokshields Free Church Literary Institute, and Queen’s Park Free Church Literary Institue on 26 January 1891: ‘Syllabus’, 1890-1891, Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Literary Institute (Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Queen’s Park, St. George’s UP, UF Church, Literary Institute syllabus, 1875-1912);

2. (Listed as having a joint meeting with the Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Institute, the Pollokshields Free Church Literary Institute, and Queen’s Park Free Church Literary Institute on 1 February 1892: ‘Syllabus’, 1890-1891, Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Literary Institute (Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Queen’s Park, St. George’s UP, UF Church, Literary Institute syllabus, 1875-1912)

[Note: this is not an exhaustive list; there are other later debates that were scheduled between this society and the Queen’s Park U. P. Church Young Men’s Institute; see Literary Institute syllabus, 1875-1912)

Repository

Glasgow City Archives

Reference Number

The ‘Club Notes’ in the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory for 1901 includes this club’s Constitution, which gives its objects:

‘The objects of the Club shall be to foster an intimate acquaintance with the works of Burns, and to celebrate the memory of our National Bard by Annual Social Meetings, and by such other means as may be arranged.’

(‘Club Notes’, ‘CO-OPERATIVE BURNS CLUB’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 106-7)

The same listing states that in order to join, gentlemen had to pay an entry fee of two shillings, and members paid an annual subscription of one shilling, which was cheaper than the average for other clubs during this period (2s 6d). The club held their meetings between September and April on the last Friday of each month. They met at 8pm at the Bridge Street Station Hotel (6 Bridge Street). Later, the club moved their meetings to 1 Cathcart Road, which, according to the 1904-1905 Glasgow Post Office directory, was the business address of one Mrs. James Anderson, wine and spirit merchant.

Date of Existence

1899?-? Federated 24 March 1899

Source of Information

1. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1900’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. IX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1900), p. 148;

2. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 106-7;

3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1904), p. 145;

There is little currently known about this club. According to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, in 1898, the group met every other Thursday. From 1899 until 1912 (at least), this was changed to every other Tuesday from September to April, when the club would meet at George M. Nichol’s (wine merchant), located at 25 Caledonia Road, South Side.

Date of Existence

1896-? Federated 1896, but 1914 Annual Burns Chronicle gives 1897 as date of federation.

Source of Information

1. (Mentioned in Minutes of Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 30 March 1908, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 8 November 1907-5 September 1912, p. 18) ;

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. 144;

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. 161;

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 (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1904), p. 143;

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. 153;

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. 163;

7. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1912’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1912), p. 167

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

National Library of Scotland (NLS)

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 through the Robert 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.

Calton is a district just to the east of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Gordon Adams’s article, ‘Calton’ on the East Glasgow History website.) Members of this young men’s society were most likely part of the congregation of the Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Church. According to the Glasgow Post Office directory, the church was one of three Wesleyan Methodist chapels in the city at the time when this society was running. Daniel S. Tatham was minister in 1839.

To date, we don’t know how many young men belonged to this society, nor how long the group was in existence. The information we do have comes from the society’s magazine that was produced by and for its members (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). There are a total of 15 extant issues of this magazine.

Date of Existence

1839-1840?

Source of Information

Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society Magazine, ed. by G. Currie, March 1839-January 1840, with Supplement to Dec. 1839; Mar. 1840-May 1840

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference Number

Mitchell (AL) 585510-585510a

Additional Notes

From the Mitchell Library online catalogue on the magazines: ‘Note: Handwritten anthology of essays and poems on religious subjects, missionary intelligence, letters to the editor[.] Donated by Miss H.E. Waddel’ [accessed 21 January 2018].

See also entry for Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society Magazine on our sister website, Literary Bonds.

This association initially met on Saturday mornings from 9.30-10.30 (later changed to 12.30-1.30pm, and then to 10-11am) in the Hall of Blythswood Church, located at 258 Bath Street (near Charing Cross). The yearly session ran from November or December until April. Membership was open to students who belonged to the Church of Scotland, some of whom were studying at the University of Glasgow for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. The group’s objects were to encourage conviviality and literary culture. As was the norm for many of these societies, meetings were opened and closed with prayer.

There are no (extant?) roll books for this association, but the number of members who attended each meeting was recorded in the minutes. From these, in the 1877-1878 session, it appears that there were at least 50 members of this group (the number of attendees at the opening meeting), but normally only between 10 and 20 people attended. In the following year, there seems to have been a drop in numbers, with only 15 members attending the opening meeting, and between 7 and 10 members at the meetings thereafter. The minutes end part-way through the session, on 8 February 1879.

The minute book is then taken over by the Glasgow University Theological Society in 1881. There was some continuity between the two societies in that there were several office bearers and committee members of The Church of Scotland Students’ Literary Association who later served the same or similar roles in the Theological Society. The new society was more focused on religious issues and doctrine than the previous group, which regularly included essays on authors (e.g. Tennyson, Byron, Milton, Wordsworth, Scott, and Schiller in the 1877-1878 session alone), and on literature and language more generally.

Date of Existence

1877?-1883?

Source of Information

1. Minute Book, Church of Scotland Students’ Literary Association, 1877-83;

2. Minutes of Church of Scotland Students’ Literary Association, 10th November 1877 to 8th February 1879;

The object of this society was its members’ intellectual improvement through the reading and discussion of essays written by society members, but this was to exclude the subject of religious doctrine.

A couple of examples of the essays read in their meetings include: ”Friends in Council’ or Reading and Criticism’, ‘Literary Societies’, and ‘a series of extracts from Leigh Hunt’s ‘Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla’ (Minute entry, 23 November 1853, Minute Book, City of Glasgow Literary Society, 1853-63).

Some of the authors that were discussed included Leigh Hunt, Victor Hugo, Thomas Hood, Nicolas Gogol (a member read an original translation of ‘Tarass Boulba’ from the French), and Cervantes.

This group was fairly small in size: the number of members in the early years fluctuated between 12 and 22. They met every other Wednesday from October until April. The subscription charge was two shillings and six pence for the session, which was the average fee for societies during the second half of the century. The society met at various venues across the city, including: the Tontine Hotel (for more information on this hotel see, ‘Tontine Hotel‘ on The Glasgow Story website); Angus’ [sic] Coffee House (Argyle Street); and the Bedford Hotel (54 St George’s Place, off the west side of Buchanan Street in the city centre).

Date of Existence

14 November 1850-1863?

Source of Information

Minute Book, City of Glasgow Literary Society, 1853-63

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference Number

436004

Additional Notes

From the Glasgow Libraries Online Catalogue: ‘Note: Handwritten minutes of meetings, and rules of the Society adopted in 1853, with signatures of members at that time’ [accessed 22 January 2018].

This club was named after ‘Clarinda’, the name adopted by Agnes McLehose (or MacLehose, M’Lehose, Meklehose), whose affair with Robert Burns (‘Sylvander’) is the subject of ‘Ae fond kiss’ (1791).

The Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory for the years 1908-1911 include this club’s syllabi. The group met once a month from October until March. In addition to the lectures, there were various social activities. To give a few examples, beyond the celebration of Burns night in January every year, there was a ‘Ladies’ Night – Tea, &c., Harmony’, a ‘Church Parade’, and a Ladies’ Night that included ‘Progressive Whist, Music, Dancing’.

Date of Existence

1899-1937?

Source of Information

1. (Mentioned in Minutes of Glasgow and District Burns Club: minute entry, 11 December 1907, Minutes, Glasgow and District Burns Club, 8 November 1907-5 September 1912, p. 9 (MLSC, 891709));

2. ‘McLehose (or MacLehose, M’Lehose, Meklehose), Agnes (‘Clarinda’)’, The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, ed. by Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes, and Sian Reynolds (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), p. 237;

3. Vance, Michael E., ‘Burns in the Park: A Tale of Three Monuments’, in Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture, ed. by Sharon Alker, Leith Davis and Holly Faith Nelson (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2012), pp. 209-232 (p. 225);

4. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1911), p. 132;

5. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1914’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1914), p. 223

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (minutes, and Annual Burns Chronicle)

National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)

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 through the Robert 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.

Clifton is an area just to the west of Charing Cross. Not a great deal is currently known about this society, which was composed of both men and women. However, their (members’?) location near the West End, along with the press notices on the opening address for the session — being a ticketed formal dinner in the Queen’s Rooms (Buchanan Street) — suggests that this society was probably a middle-class group with at least a moderately-sized number of members.

Date of Existence

1861?-?

Source of Information

1. ‘Clifton Literary Society’, Glasgow Herald, 19 October 1864, p. 2;

2. ‘Clifton Literary Society’, Glasgow Herald, 22 October 1864, p. 8;

3. Clifton Literary Society, The third annual feed of the Clifton Literary Society … 15th April, 1864 ([Glasgow], [1864]) (UGSC)

Repository

Mitchell Library (Glasgow Herald)

National Library of Scotland (Glasgow Herald)

University of Glasgow Special Collections (UGSC)

Reference Number

Sp Coll Mu22-f.2 (UGSC)

Additional Notes

The Mitchell Library and National Library of Scotland have copies of the Glasgow Herald on microfilm as well as hard copies (consult online catalogues for further details). Digitised copies are available through the British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/.

Clydebank is located to the west of Glasgow and is situated on the north of the River Clyde. The Visit Scotland website offers a brief history of the area:

‘Clydebank is the historic heartland of the Scottish shipbuilding industry […]

During the 19th century, Clydebank grew from a small village to one of the world’s major ship building centres. The town was originally known as Barns o’ Clyde, but changed its name in 1882 after the Thomson brothers relocated their shipyard to the village and began building tenement housing for the workers.’

There is very little currently known about this Burns club. Outwith the names and addresses of its president and secretary, there is no information on the size of its membership nor any details regarding its meeting time and place in the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory listing.

Date of Existence

1897?-1910; 1914-? Federated 1897

Source of Information

‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1900’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. IX (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1900), p. 146

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

National Library of Scotland (NLS)

Reference Number

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

This club is not the same as the Barns O’ Clyde Burns Club, Clydebank.

Where there are breaks in the dates of a club’s existence, it was the case that the directories listed them as ‘dormant’ during the intervening years.

‘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 through the Robert 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.

There is little currently known about this society. The only information we have to date comes from a 1903 printed brochure for the Wellington United Free Church, Glasgow (see ‘Additional Notes’ below), which lists a a joint debate with the College United Free Church Literary Society.

It is likely that this society was connected with the Glasgow University United Free Church Students’ Society, which was founded in 1845, and was running about the same as the literary society (see, for example, The Glasgow University Calendar for the Year 1908-9 (Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1908, p. 756).

Date of Existence

1903?-?

Source of Information

(Mentioned in printed brochure: ‘Wellington United Free Church, Glasgow. Supplement. March, 1903’, The Missionary Record of the United Free Church of Scotland (Edinburgh and London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1903); [annotated:] ‘First issue G.H.M’, p. 2; joint debate between the two societies, pp. 2-3)

Repository

University of Glasgow Library

Reference Number

Theology Pers MI700

Additional Notes

See also Wellington United Presbyterian Church Literary Association, with whom this society at least one joint meeting.