Kintyre Young Men’s Literary Association (later resurrected as Kintyre Literary Association)

Overview

Kintyre is a peninsula on the west coast of Scotland. This society is a type of nineteenth-century county association. In the stricter sense, county associations were groups whose members (or whose parents) were former residents of counties across Scotland who had moved to Glasgow. This type of group incorporated elements of a benevolent society in that they could offer a combination of accommodation, advice, referrals, and general assistance to newcomers in the city when they arrived, while also offering aid to widows, unemployed members, or members undergoing financial hardship. In addition, they might offer to provide for the education of their members’ children, or money to support their higher education.

The association was formed of young men that were either born in Kintyre or had formerly resided therein but now lived in Glasgow. The object of the Kintyre Young Men’s Literary Association was its members’ moral and intellectual improvement, which was to be brought about by the reading of original essays and any other means they determined suitable.

Members met in the Religious Institutions Rooms (75 St. George’s Place, off the west side of Buchanan Street, in the city centre) at 8pm on Wednesdays during the session. The subscription fee was 2s 6p, which was the average fee for literary societies at this time. There are 35 names on the ‘Roll of Members’ for the 1862-63 session, with seven names written in pencil thereafter. The last meeting of this group was on 23 December 1863.

The group was revived in 1867 as the Kintyre Literary Association. At at meeting held on November 1st at the Religious Institution Rooms to discuss the formation of a new society, 25 young men discussed the particulars and elected the officer bearers for their group. Under its Constitution, the object of the society was also its members’ moral and intellectual improvement .

The group would continue to meet at the Religious Institution Rooms at 8pm every other Tuesday for the rest of November and December 1867, and then changed to weekly meetings for the remainder of the session and thereafter. The subscription fee was 2 shillings. The group wound up on 21 October 1879.

Date of Existence

9 September 1862-23 December 1863; 1 November 1867-21 October 1879

Source of Information

1. Kintyre Young Men’s Literary Association, Minute Book No. I, 1862-63 (ABCA, DR1/104);

2. Kintyre Literary Association, Minute Book No. I, 1867-72 (ABCA, DR1/105/1);

3. Kintyre Literary Association, Minute Book No. 2, 1872-1879 (ABCA, DR1/105/2)

Repository

Argyll and Bute Council Archives (ABCA)

Reference Number

(See Source of Information)

Additional Notes