Overview

The Paisley Literary and Convivial Association was a group of about 25 men who met weekly on Saturday nights between 1814 until around 1864 for readings, discussion of pre-selected topics, and to read their original essays and literary compositions on a range of subjects. The minute book has survived and is also housed in Paisley Heritage Centre (see the Centre’s online catalogue for further details, and below for reference number).

There are two volumes (i.e. two copies) of the ‘Manuscript Book of the Literary & Convivial Association’, Volume II being the original. This manuscript book is a total of 78 pages of original poems and songs, and the contributions are signed by the association members. At the back of the book is a table of contents.

Volume I provides a history of the society and its members, which included the poets James Yool, John King, William Stewart and James Whitehill.  Yool was a weaver all his life. At around age 20, he began to publish his poetry. Stewart, a working-class man from Paisley, is described as a ‘self-made man’, who later became a teacher and emigrated to Canada. King (aka ‘Curly King’) was also a weaver.

Another member, Matthew Erskine was a weaver, later a foreman in the warehouse of J&J Robertson, shawl manufacturers. William Mardock (also Murdock) was a shoemaker who later emigrated to Canada. He worked as a lighthouse keeper, later in the newspaper trade, and published his poems.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Paisley Literary and Convivial Association

Date of Existence

1814-1856 (‘resuscitated’ in 1860s until ?)

Date of Magazine

(compositions are from various dates added later)

Number of Issues

1 (a second, manuscript copy of this is also available in archives (Vol. 1); original is listed as Vol. 2)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Clippings (printed material); Poems (original); Songs (original); Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Paisley Heritage Centre (Central Library)

Reference

Heritage 366 PA PC20134 Archives (Vols. 1 & 2);

Heritage 651.77 PA PC22140 Archives (Minute Book)

This magazine was founded by Frances Martin, an influential foundress of the College for Working Women (Queen Square, Bloomsbury) which was to take Martin’s name following her death. (For more information about the College for Working Women — later the Frances Martin College for Women — see the article, ‘College for Working Women‘, on the UCL Bloomsbury Project website.) Twelve years after the founding of the college, Martin decided that there was a need for a magazine for the benefit of its students and teachers. It was also to be open to external contributors who supported the college.

There are two issues of The College News, A Quarterly Magazine. There are three (extant) copies of the first issue, one of which is in Martin’s own handwriting (she acted as the magazine’s Editor for the first two issues). This is only seven pages, six of which comprise Martin’s ‘Address to the Readers’. Essentially, it is a prospectus for a new journal and lays out the need for a magazine that would act as a means of communication between students and teachers, and to share news about the college and its activities. In addition, she makes suggestions for other features for future issues: a section on the current business climate; the ‘News of the Quarter’ on college classes, meetings and socials; a ‘Personal News’ column on marriages, births, deaths, emigrations and promotions; and ‘Illustrations and Original Contributions’, that would include poetry, prose and artwork. The remaining page announces a forthcoming reading by the actress, Mrs Bernard Beere, that was to be held at the college, and a list of the type of ‘Contributions Requested’.

The second issue was produced eight months later and has twenty-one contributions, which include a variety of materials: there are non-fiction articles, essays, various club and society reports, a travel piece accompanied by by original pen-and-ink illustrations, two acrostic puzzles, along with various cuttings from presumably other College printed publications, and a newspaper cutting of an obituary reporting on the death of a senior administrator. There was also a writing contest with prizes of books offered for the best essays. It appears that these were the only two issues produced under by the College for Working Women.

Another college magazine appeared in print in December 1911 entitled, A Reminiscence of the College for Working Women. The ‘Introduction’ makes clear that it was the first issue and was instigated by the College Chairman so as to compare favourably with other institutions who produced their own journals. While this magazine was getting under way, the two earlier issues were discovered, and a decision was made to reproduce them in print as one (truncated and re-organised) issue. The earlier manuscript magazines were presented as a ‘prelude to the new journal.

The first official issue of this new magazine was called Our Magazine and appeared in print in January 1913 costing one penny. This issue contains a combination of reports notices of college events and activites, anecdotes and accounts of past events, and only one original story. It is predominantly devoted to correspondence, with 21 extracts from students’ letters.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Working Women’s College (later became the Frances Martin College for Women) (London)

Date of Existence

1874-1957 (in 1957, lease expired at 7 Fitzroy Street; moved to working men’s college building in Crowndale Road, NW1)

Date of Magazine

The College News, A Quarterly Magazine: Mar. 1886; Nov. 1886; A Reminiscence of the College for Working Women: Dec. 1911; Our Magazine: Jan. 1913

(Note: another magazine was produced in 1927-28, Chronicle of the Frances Martin College)

Number of Issues

4 (total number produced by the college under different titles during the period under study)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript, later issues in print

Contents and Contributions

Address; Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Class reports; Clippings (printed material); Correspondence column; Editorials;  Essays; Extracts of students’ letters; Lists of forthcoming events; Lists of Prizes and Certificates; Newspaper clippings; Notices; Notices (printed); Poem (republished material); Preface; Puzzles; Reports; Report (Debating Society); Tables of Class Attendance; Tables of Contents; Tables of Students’ Occupations; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

A/FMC/CM/001; A/FMC/CM/004;
A/FMC/CM/005; A/FMC/CM/006a;
(1927-28 issue: A/FMC/CM/007a)

This society was based at Park Church, located on Grosvenor Lane, Highbury, London, which was a Scottish Presbyterian church. It had a thriving middle-class congregation, and several active clubs and societies attached to it, including this young men’s literary association. The society was founded in 1859, and their later minute books — also housed at London Metropolitan Archives —  still survive.

Whilst initially made up of young Scottish men, after 1895, women were allowed to join as full members. Overall, this was a fairly good-sized group, with an average of 63 members between 1881 and 1897, and its membership appears to have risen slightly in the first decades of the twentieth century to around 77 members.

There are 15 extant issues of this association’s magazine, eight of which date from 1901 to 1911 (falling within our study’s time frame of 1800 and 1914), and were the sole focus in this project. This miscellany has a variety of fiction and non-fiction pieces on a variety of topics, and the number of original poems is a bit higher than other mutual improvement and literary society magazines. There are also several biographical pieces on canonical authors such as Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Kingsley and Charles Lamb.

A particularly notable feature of this magazine was the elaborate, handcrafted covers and bindings that were used, with most issues having an elaborate outer cover that was attached to the inner magazine with a colourful ribbon. The most elaborate of these was a needlepoint cover, the design of which was taken from a book cover housed in the British Museum that was said to be made by Queen Elizabeth. This magazine was intended to be saved and was perhaps a treasured production of this society.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Park Church Literary Society (in association with Park Presbyterian Church, Grosvenor Place, Highbury, Islington, London)

Date of Existence

1859-1939?

Date of Magazine

1901-1911; 1929-1937

Number of Issues

The Highbury Magazine, No. 2 (1901); No. 3 (1902); No. 4 (1903); No. 6 (1905); No. 8 (1907); No. 9 (1908); No. 10 (1909); No. 12 (1911); 1 vol (1926-1927);

Park Church Literary Magazine, 1 vol. (1926-1927); 1 vol. (1930-1931)

(Within the date range of this study: 8 issues, 1901-1911.)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements (humorous); Articles (non-fiction); Ballad (original); Circulation List; Clippings (printed material); Correspondence column; Editorial; Fiction/Narratives; List of Office Bearers; Magazine Rules; Music; Poems (original); Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

LMA/4366/B/008-15 (for later magazines, see: LMA/4303/E/02/043; LMA/4303/E/02/044)

Overview

A summary of the history of the Holyrood Literary Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

This magazine has a paper cover (as shown in the accompanying photograph) and has been hand-stitched with blue ribbon, with even the frontispiece — a small (gouache?) painting of a cottage — being sown into its pages.

The Christmas 1897 issue is the first number produced by this society. There are 84 pages with 12 contributions (including the frontispiece). With the exception of one anonymous piece and one signed with a pen-name, all of the authors sign with their own names. There is an equal mix of prose and poetry. Similarly to the New Literary Club Magazine, there is a ‘Page of Confessions’, which is a list of ‘favourite’ items that must be filled in (e.g. ‘Your favourite Author’; ‘Your favourite Book’, etc., ending with ‘What is the height of your ambition’).

Loosely inserted amongst its pages is a list of the magazine’s readers with their respective addresses. This paper also includes the rules of circulation, which allow only two days for reading, whereupon the reader must pass it to the next member on the list and record the date on which it was delivered.

While the society was a mixed-gender group, it appears that its 1897 magazine was contributed to solely by the male members. Indeed, the second piece by one ‘Sister Viola’ is actually a satirical sermon that uses the comic song, ‘Where Did You Get That Hat?’ (‘Chorus: Where did you get that hat? Where did you get that tile?…’) as a modern illustration for the lines from Ezekiel 4:1 of taking a tile. This was in keeping with the light, humorous tone of most of the magazine, and was almost certainly authored by one of the male members.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Holyrood Literary Society. On 24 September 1897 it amalgamated with the Literary Twenty-One Club and retained its name. On 3 October 1899, it changed its name to the Holyrood Literary Club, and later to the New Holyrood Club.  (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

The Holyrood Literary Society was formed in 1894, and, inclusive of its later incarnations, was in existence until 1946(?).

Date of Magazine

Xmas 1897

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Circulation List; Clippings (printed material); Editorial; Essays; Fiction/Narrative; Frontispiece; Magazine Rules; ‘Page of Confessions’; Photographs (previously published); Poems (original); Poem (translation); Table of Contents

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

(Note: The Literary Twenty-one Club records are housed together with the records of the Holyrood Club (891047))

Additional Notes

See also entry for Holyrood Literary Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.