30 October 1819: ‘The resident members of the University, who have taken their first degree, are hereby invited to assemble at the Lecture Room, under the Public Library at twelve o’clock, on Tuesday Nov 2, for the purpose of instituting a society, as a point of concourse, for scientific communications’.
The minutes of a meeting held on 3 November 1819, chaired by Dr Haviland, record that the society was duly instituted at the meeting on 2 November. P.3: report of the committee elected on 8 November, comprising 20 resolutions made for regulating the Society. P. 6: regulations of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, adopted at a public meeting held ‘in the University’ on 15 November, a society instituted ‘for the purpose of promoting scientific enquiries & - - - the advancement of Philosophy’; meetings to be held once a fortnight during full term.
The first meeting proper of the Society was held in the Museum of the Botanic Garden, 13 December 1819, with Prof Farish in the chair.
A meeting of 6 March 1820 resolved that ‘a paper by Prof Sedgwick of the Geology of Cornwall &c be the first communication read to the Society at the next general meeting’.
P.16: motion to style the Society ‘The Cambridge Philosophical & Literary Society’.
P.46: extraordinary meeting 3 December 1821 concerning proposals for a Reading Room;
25 March 1822: record of Reading Room rules and regulations drawn up by a committee appointed for that purpose;
Regular contributors of papers include Charles Babbage, the Rev J Hailstone, Adam Sedgwick, William Farish, James Cumming, William Whewell, George Biddell Airy, John Henslow and George Peacock.