General Assembly minutes, vol. 1
Volume of minutes of the General Assembly, including the following selected entries: transcript of the memorial presented to
King George III in November 1768 by 22 artists, to obtain his patronage for a “Society for promoting the Arts of Design”, note of the King’s reply and an entry stating that
William Chambers had then drawn up a fuller “Sketch of a Plan” [which became the Instrument of Foundation] for the proposed body, 14 December 1768; the statement that those in attendance at the meeting had been nominated Academicians of the Royal Academy of Arts, a note that the King had signed the Instrument of Foundation, a transcript of the obligation signed by those present to observe the laws and regulations set out in the Instrument and a note of the election of first President, Secretary, Keeper, Council and Visitors, 14 December 1768; the resolution that
Thomas Gainsborough continue in the Council [an allusion to his absences], 11 December 1775; the resolution that a piece of plate be presented to
Francis Milner Newton, who had resigned as Secretary, “as an acknowledgement of their perfect satisfaction in the able faithfull and diligent discharge of his duty as Secretary of the Royal Academy from the year of its establishment 1768 to the present year, 1788”, 10 December 1788; entries relating to
Sir Joshua Reynolds’s resignation as President in the controversy over the proposed election of
Joseph Bonomi as Professor of Perspective, 10 December 1789 – 16 March 1790; transcript of a letter to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral, proposing the formation of a committee to advise on monuments in the cathedral, 5 May 1791; entries relating to the proposal to vote £100 towards a memorial to
Dr Johnson, including a transcript of Sir William Chambers’s letter advising against the proposal, 2 July 1791; and minutes of the meeting by which
Benjamin West was elected President in succession to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 17 March 1792.