The evidence for the Jedburgh Mutual Improvement Association and its magazine comes solely from an article in a local newspaper, The Jedburgh Gazette. A further investigation of the local press and archives may provide further information on this group.

According to the article, in January 1883, the Jedburgh Mutual Improvement Association held its first annual social meeting, which was apparently a big success, having such a large attendance that extra tables had to be assembled to accommodate all the guests. The newspaper report provides a list of important personages who attended, which included local politicians and prominent local business leaders. A deputation from the Crailing Literary Association was also present. (Crailing is a small community located approximately four miles to the north of Jedburgh; although small, community members in the late nineteenth century apparently wished to have its own literary association.)

Following tea, the Chairman — the President of the association, Mr James Cree — gave a speech, and discussed the formation of the mutual improvement association. The group had been running for ‘one year and a few months’. He said that the group’s name was the most eloquent way of giving the association’s object and purpose. He goes on to elucidate their goals:

‘What we seek is to cultivate habits of research and study; the ability to justify and the courage to maintain in a rational way the opinions we form; the expression of thoughts in language that is clear and precise; and the respectful toleration of the honest convictions of others. This, you will see, is largely a work of self-improvement. It is not, however, a selfish work […] the improvement of the individual is to the advantage of the community […]’ (‘Jedburgh Mutual Improvement Association. Social Meeting’, The Jedburgh Gazette, 20 January 1883, p. 3).

According to Cree, at the weekly meetings, members engaged in debates, gave speeches, readings, and produced a manuscript magazine. Membership was apparently growing steadily, and was open to men of all ages. To extend their ‘usefulness’, lectures were opened to the public with an admission charge. No other details regarding the group’s magazine are given.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Jedburgh Mutual Improvement Association

Date of Existence

1882-?

Date of Magazine

(1882-1883?)

Number of Issues

(currently unknown)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

(currently unknown)

Repository

Heritage Hub, Hawick (The Jedburgh Gazette)

Reference

The young men’s mutual improvement society that produced this magazine was in existence from at least 1875, going by the reports of the society meetings published in the local newspaper. A further investigation of the local press and archives may provide further information on this group.

In an article in The Hawick Express in 1880 on the society’s annual social meeting, the main points of the secretary’s report were given. The group’s activities for the session included the following:

’12 readings had been given, 12 recitations, 1 dialogue, 14 essays, and 3 contributions to the MS. Journal’ (‘Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society’, The Hawick Express, 08 May 1880, p. 3).

In addition, the group members participated in debates, the subjects of which were:

‘Ought Sir W. Lawson’s local option bill to become law? Are the mental capacities of the sexes equal? And was Gladstone’s visit to Mid-Lothian the act of a far-seeing statesman?’ (Ibid).

Also reported were the new office-bearers for the 1880-1881 session. Amongst them was Mr John Turnbull, the editor of the MS Journal. Outwith the mention of the three contributions to the (presumably) annual manuscript magazine (or magazine night?), no other details are given. (For an example of a society in which the members’ contributions for society ‘magazine nights’ later were collected and bound, see the entry for Renwick Free Church Literary Association, ‘(Magazine Evening: Magazine Later Bound)’.)

The members of this group, at least in the mid-1870s, appear to taken some issue with the spirit of a debate held on whether or not museums should be open on Sundays, such that at least a couple of members wrote of their grievances in letters to the editor of The Hawick Express. This was an unusual circumstance, and the wish to take their disagreements public in the desire to gain public support perhaps speaks to an earnestness of spirit in which these members engaged in society activities.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Hawick Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society

Date of Existence

1875?-1880?

Date of Magazine

1880

Number of Issues

(at least) 1 (not extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

(Unknown)

Repository

Hawick Library

Reference

There are few details currently known about this society and its magazine. According to an obituary notice for Frank Hogg in The Hawick Express, it may have been the Hawick Literary Society that was referred to as the ‘young men’s literary society’ that is given as one of the ways that Hogg — a known member — helped to encourage a ‘taste’ for literature. This article states that he ‘had the credit of helping to inaugurate the first course of lectures [for the young men’s literary society] in the Exchange Hall’ (‘The Late Mr Frank Hogg’, The Hawick Express, 21 February 1880, p. 3).

The evidence for the production of a society magazine for this group comes from an article on Hogg in Hawick Songs and Song Writers (1881). According to the article, the song, ‘I like Auld Hawick’ was written anonymously for the Hawick Literary Society MS. Magazine in 1867. Hogg sang it himself at a dinner in 1879, revealing himself as its author.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Hawick Literary Society

Date of Existence

1867?-?

Date of Magazine

1867

Number of Issues

(at least) 1 (not extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Song (original); (other contents currently unknown)

Repository

Hawick Library (The Hawick Express and Hawick Songs and Song Writers)

Reference

Local History, LR828 MUR (Hawick Songs and Song Writers, 2nd edn, 1889; 3rd edn, 1897)

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

At a meeting of this society held on 28 April 1868, it is recorded that two men (who were later to briefly become joint editors) were to form a  committee to look into the feasibility of starting a manuscript magazine for the group, and they were to make a report at the next meeting. The society discussed the report at the second meeting in the 1868-1869 session, and the matter was approved, so long as they were ‘economical in the matter of paper’. This highlights the fact that like most small societies, costs were an important factor in the decision to establish a magazine.

The ‘Report of [the] Committee appointed at [a] meeting of [the] Renfield Association, April 28th 1868, on [the] proposed Association Magazine’ can be found at the back of the group’s minute book and makes for interesting reading: this document is a rare example where the thought and care that went into the planning and execution of a society magazine is documented and preserved.

The committee couches the formation of the new magazine within the framework of an existing culture for society manuscript magazines already being produced in the city. It recommended having a monthly magazine, that the paper be provided by the association, and that the magazine should be bound. Circulation would be restricted to the members, and the list that would accompany the periodical would be constructed according to the proximity of members to each other, beginning and ending with the Editor/s. The committee also gave a full list of the Editors’ duties. The cost of the paper (approximately 50 sheets), ruling and binding of the magazine was estimated at 2s 6d per month.

However, we know very little about the magazine that was actually produced: interestingly, outwith the noting of the periodic change of editors for various reasons, there is no mention of the production of the magazines in the minutes.

At the close of the 1867-1868 session, there were 22 members on the roll, which dropped to 10 in this society’s very last session. This means that from the time of its proposal to the dissolving of the group, there was a decreasing number of members that would have contributed to this magazine.

We do know that there were in total six issues or ‘parts’, and that at the last meeting, they were allocated to six group members who are named.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Renfield Free Church Young Men’s Society

Date of Existence

26 February 1851-18 January 1870

Date of Magazine

1868-1870

Number of Issues

6 (Nos. 1-6)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

(unknown)

Repository

(Glasgow City Archives)

Reference

(See: Glasgow, Renfield Free Church, U.F., Young Men’s Society minutes, 1851-69, CH3/1166/13)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Renfield Free Church Young Men’s Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

The first ‘Annual Report of the Committee of the Airdrie Young Men’s Christian Association’ (in manuscript) provides a brief history of the group’s inaugural year from it’s founding in February 1872 until January 1873. The association was nonsectarian and its object was its members’ religious, moral and intellectual improvement. This was to be accomplished by holding a variety of meetings which were divided by the group into the religious and the secular. For example, in additional to meetings held for bible studies, devotional exercises and ‘proofs’, there were also meetings specifically for mutual improvement activities like preparing and presenting ‘general essays’ to the group, holding debates, and reading materials aloud at the meetings.

The group met at the Town Hall in Airdrie by permission of the Town Council (later, the venue would change to the Association Hall, which was located at 89 Graham Street). The sessions ran weekly during the winter from October until April, and the first session wrapped up with a social meeting. The subjects of the essays and debates were similar to those of other literary and mutual improvement groups. During the summer of 1872, the group met for classes in elocution, and 25 members took part. In the second session, a class in shorthand and another in French were started.

There were 40 members in the first (short) session, and by January 1873, mid-way through the second session, there were 68. The Committee noted rather tartly that the attendance levels at the mutual improvement meetings were on the whole better attended than the religious ones. This document also includes the attendance rolls.

The second document related to this group is a printed announcement for the opening lecture for the 1883-1884 session. The last is a printed prospectus booklet for the 1893-1894 session, which includes: a list of the Airdrie Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) office bearers; list of affiliated associations; names of the members of the General Council; advertisements for the association’s activities; syllabus for the ‘Literary Section’; a list of the section’s committee members; its bylaws; constitution of the YMCA; and membership details.

From the syllabus of the Literary Section, we know that the group continued to meet weekly in the late nineteenth century. Membership was open to young men who were members of the YMCA and others who were of good moral character. The subscription charge was 1s 6d, which was cheaper than the subscription for ‘Basic Members’ of the YMCA (2s), and cheaper than the average for these groups at this time (2s 6d). Similarly to the meetings in the 1870s, guest lectures were given and essays read, but a musical evening was added to the syllabus along with an annual free breakfast for the poor. Further, ‘Magazine Evenings’ (listed in the Syllabus as the ‘Editor’s Drawer’) were now featured, and there were three held during this session.

‘Magazine Evenings’, ‘Magazine Nights’, or even ‘Manuscript Magazine Nights’ were meetings that were devoted to the reading of original essays (or occasionally poems) written by group members that were submitted to the Magazine Editor beforehand. The Editor would be responsible for collecting, occasionally selecting, and reading the pieces aloud to the group (more rarely this was done by the contributor him/herself) on the appointed night. This would be followed by ‘criticism’ — or discussion on the piece’s positive and negative points — by the group members.

After the meetings, these contributions were sometimes bound and saved in the society’s library (if they had one) or would be kept by one of the office bearers. In these cases, it was intended that the magazine was to be preserved and that group members would have access to it at a later date. It is of note that literary and mutual improvement groups used the term ‘magazine’ to refer to the oral as well as the material medium.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Airdrie Young Men’s Christian Association, ‘Literary Section’

Date of Existence

7 February 1872-1894?

Date of Magazine

1893?-1894?

Number of Issues

(at least) 3 Magazine Evenings (unknown if contributions were preserved)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

(Presumably unpublished manuscripts)

Contents and Contributions

(unknown)

Repository

North Lanarkshire Archives

Reference

Airdrie Young Men’s Christian Association, 1872-1893, U31 2/1-3

[Note: the reference number given on the Scottish Archive Network online catalogue for this material is listed as the following: GB1778/U31]

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

In 1873, at the annual social meeting of this association, the President of the society mentioned that a proposal was put forward to start a magazine for the group, which was received with ‘great applause’. The topic was discussed at two subsequent meetings, when a decision was made to postpone looking into it further until later in the session. Up until the 1883-1884 session (the last session that is covered by the extant minute book), there is no further evidence that the issue was raised again. It appears that the proposal to start a society magazine never got off the ground.

This society was one of many groups in Scotland and England (and beyond) during the long nineteenth century that held discussions during their meetings about founding a group scrapbook, magazine or newspaper for their respective societies, but chose in the end not to start one.

It is debatable whether or not these societies should be included in this study. However, we would argue that the discussions and/or stated intentions of these groups to found a magazine for their societies demonstrates that the issue was important enough to be considered as part of their associational activities, indeed, to be part of their efforts for ‘improvement’ (this was variously defined as intellectual, religious and/or moral improvement) whether they ultimately decided to found one or not. The fact that they did at least discuss it should be recorded.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Kelvinside Literary Association (later became The Young People’s At Home) (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1865-(at least 1909)

Date of Magazine

(Currently unknown if ever produced)

Number of Issues

(Currently unknown)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

(Unknown)

Contents and Contributions

(unknown)

Repository

(Glasgow City Archives, see ‘Reference’ below)

Reference

(See minute book of this literary association for details on the meetings in which discussions took place about starting a society magazine: Glasgow, Kelvinside, Free Church, U.F., Literary association minutes, 1871-84, CH3/1012/11)

Additional Notes

This was a Free Church society and should not be confused with the Kelvinside Parish Church Literary Society, which was a Church of Scotland society. For more information about this group see entry for Kelvinside Parish Church Literary Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

See also entry for Kelvinside Literary Association on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.