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1723 - 1745
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According to an article on Maxwell, Robert (1695-1765) in the
Dictionary of National Biography, v.13 pp.134-135,
Maxwell was one of the earliest and most active members of the
Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland,
which had been established at Edinburgh on 1723, June 8.
Dictionary of National Biography, v.13 p.134
notes that the Society dissolved when most of its founders had died;
when that happened, Maxwell concentrated on the
Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences,
Manufactures, and Agriculture, which took the place of the
Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland.
According to Deike (1994), p.21, the Society
existed only until 1745.
It might be interesting to add some information from other sources about
this later Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences,
Manufactures, and Agriculture.
To begin, there is a record in the
Nat. Lib. Scotland cat. for the
following 1755 title:
Rules and orders of the Edinburgh Society, for the encouragement of
arts, sciences, manufactures, and agriculture..
Some additional information is found in:
Emerson, Roger L.
The Social Composition of Enlightened Scotland: The
Select Society of Edinburgh, 1754-1764.
Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (1973)
114: 291-329. We abbreviate the latter reference as Emerson (1973).
Emerson (1973), p.291 indicates that the Select Society of
Edinburgh was an important circle of intellectuals in Scotland from
1754 to 1764.
Emerson (1973), p.297 notes that in 1755 (a year after its founding) the
Select Society brought into being a subsidiary society named the
Edinburgh Society for Encouraging Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, and
Agriculture in Scotland.
[Note the use of the word Encouraging rather then
Encouragement, as well as other variations in the society name.]
According to Emerson (1973), p.300, both societies ceased in 1764.
No mention is made of the
Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland.
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