Setting Forth

In 1731, fourteen gentlemen met in Trinity College Dublin and resolved to form the ‘Dublin Society’, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to the improvement of agriculture, industry and manufacture, and the arts and sciences in Ireland.

Present at the first meeting were Thomas Prior and William Maple. Prior, a lawyer, was the principal founder of the Society and its most active promoter. Maple, a chemist, was the first Registrar of the Society and keeper of its collections.

Samuel Madden, a clergyman, was the Society’s first patron. He suggested a scheme of prizes to encourage the introduction of new technologies and agricultural practices in Ireland. Nicknamed ‘Premium Madden’, he contributed an annuity of £130 to the scheme.

After a charter of incorporation was granted by George II in 1750, the Society commissioned a corporate seal. The design depicts the seated figure of Minerva – the Roman goddess of wisdom, the arts and sciences – with the motto, Nostri plena laboris (Our work bears fruit). Since then, this emblem has been used on medals and documents, and it even embellishes the Society’s buildings.

In 1820, George IV was invited to become Patron of the Society and from that time on, the Dublin Society became the Royal Dublin Society. Following his visit to the Society’s headquarters at Leinster House in 1821, the Society commissioned a statue of the king wearing the robes of a Knight of the Order of St. Patrick.

Two further charters were granted to the Society by Queen Victoria; one which enabled the Society to create an Executive Council in 1866, and another, in 1888, which merged the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland with the Royal Dublin Society.

One of the more recent additions to our Collection is the Society’s ceremonial mace. Presented in 1903 by the incumbent RDS President, Arthur Edward Guinness, the mace is used for ceremonial purposes at the five annual meetings of the Society’s governing council.