The London Revolution Society was formed 1788, ostensibly to commemorate the

centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

of the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

of 1688 and the landing of William III, and was one of several

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

societies in Britain in the 1790s. Other similar Revolution Societies were formed in provincial cities such as

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, which rivalled

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

as the centre of English

Jacobinism A Jacobin (; ) was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–1799). The club got its name from meeting at the Dominican rue Saint-Honoré ...

. Many of the members of the London Revolution Society were also members of the

Society for Constitutional Information The Society for Constitutional Information was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform and knowledge of the English constitution. It was an organisation of social reformers, many of who ...

(CSI), 1780–1794. Along with some

Anglicans Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

a large number of

English Dissenters English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestants who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries. English Dissenters opposed state interference in religious matters and founded their own churches, educationa ...

and Unitarians were at the centre of the Society including

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the F ...

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...

, Andrew Kippis, Abraham Rees,

Theophilus Lindsey Theophilus Lindsey (20 June 1723 O.S.3 November 1808) was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel. Lindsey's 1774 revised prayer book based on Samuel C ...

Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister. Life Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the di ...

, Thomas Brand Hollis and Peter Finch Martineau. At the time of the fall of the Bastille in July 1789, the London Revolution Society was the most vocal of the radical societies. The meeting place in 1789 was the

London Tavern The City of London Tavern or London Tavern was a notable meeting place in London during the 18th and 19th centuries. A place of business where people gathered to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, the tavern was situated in Bishopsgate ...

. The group became increasingly supportive of the French Revolution, then still in its initial stages. Their November 1789 address to the French National Assembly would inspire the creation of the first French

Jacobin Club The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

. The Society continued its activities in 1790–1792 but after 1792 the radical momentum shifted from the London Revolution Society back to the SCI and the

London Corresponding Society The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associatio ...

(LCS) The LCS was arguably the most influential and the longest-surviving of the societies.Gregory Fremont-Barnes ''Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New ...'' 2007 Page 423 "The London Corresponding Society was to be the most influential and the longest-surviving radical society in Britain in the 1790s" The London Revolution Society last met in 1792, as most of these societies went inactive after the conservative reaction in 1792–1794, when, following local

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...

trials in 1792 and 1793,

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

initiated the

1794 Treason Trials The 1794 Treason Trials, arranged by the administration of William Pitt, were intended to cripple the British radical movement of the 1790s. Over thirty radicals were arrested; three were tried for high treason: Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke a ...

, followed by the

Seditious Meetings Act 1795 The Seditious Meetings Act 1795 ( 36 Geo. 3. c. 8) was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in December 1795; it had as its purpose was to restrict the size of public meetings to fifty persons. It was the second of the well known ...

References

See also