William Desborough Cooley and the Foundation of the Hakluyt Society

There can be no doubt that William Desborough Cooley was the originator of the Hakluyt Society. Yet there was doubt on the matter before Sir William Foster’s article on the Society’s history appeared in the Centenary volume. Foster had examined the Society’s archive and quoted a minute of the annual meeting of 1849 which recorded the thanks given to Cooley ‘for having planned and originated the Hakluyt Society’. ¹ Since the time of Foster’s article, a detailed study of Cooley’s career and Mrs Middleton’s analysis of the Society’s records have both followed Foster’s lead and made clear Cooley’s right to be regarded as the Society’s founder. ² Yet Cooley’s actual activities in the period during which he developed the idea of just such a society and while he was the Society’s first Secretary have not been previously described. The overall circumstances in which the Society was founded and in which it established itself in its first three years of existence have remained to be investigated. Even the fact that the new body was 52originally to have been known as the ‘Columbus Society’ has been forgotten for a century and a half. The present article attempts to remedy the situation, although the many obscurities surrounding both Cooley and the early life of the Society mean that some uncertainties persist. What can be confirmed is that Cooley was indeed the key figure in 1846. Certain other members of the Provisional Council, notably J. E. Gray, Sir Charles Malcolm and Bolton Corney, may also have had significant roles, but Cooley’s role was outstanding.