Governor Samuel Wegg, intelligent layman of the Royal Society, 1753-1802
'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and the Hudson’s Bay Company, trading in Rupert’s Land, North America, might seem unlikely institutions to have engendered any close associations in the first several centuries of their existence. Yet, even before the commercial compa...
| Published in: | Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
1978
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1978.0015 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsnr.1978.0015 |
| Summary: | 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and the Hudson’s Bay Company, trading in Rupert’s Land, North America, might seem unlikely institutions to have engendered any close associations in the first several centuries of their existence. Yet, even before the commercial company was chartered by Charles II in 1670, the Society had shown keen interest in the reported happenings in Hudson Bay, and had listened to letters and short papers on the character of, and early exploration of the area. Their interest is even more understandable when one realizes that a significant cadre of Fellows of the Society were either founding Adventurers of the Company or were, in its early years, on its executive Committee. Leading this list was King Charles II himself; and others were Prince Rupert, the first Governor of the Company; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; George Monk, Duke of Albemarle; Robert Boyle, James Hayes, Sir Paul Neile, Sir Philip Carteret and Sir Peter Colleton; James, Duke of York, the second Governor of the Company and later King James II; Sir Christopher Wren, President of the Royal Society; and Sir William Trumbull, third Governor of the H.B.C. But no one, then or later, had a longer or closer association with the two institutions, or wielded more authority simultaneously than Samuel Wegg, Esq., Deputy Governor and Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1774 to 1799, and Treasurer of the Royal Society, 1768 to 1802. The career and the significance of Wegg are not well known to these respective institutions, and less so is their awareness of the part played by him in the other Company or Society. |
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