Birmingham Book Club

The Birmingham Book Club, known to its opponents during the 1790s as the Jacobin Club owing to its political radicalism,^[1] and also as the Twelve Apostles,^[2] was a book club and debating society based in Birmingham, England from the 18th to the 20th century.^[3]

Little is known of the club’s origins, but surviving records suggest that it was in existence by 1745.^[3] The club met at Freeth’s Coffee HousePopular name for the Leicester Arms in Birmingham, which operated from 1736 until 1832, one of the most celebrated taverns of Georgian England. at the Leicester Arms on the corner of Bell Street and Lease Lane in Birmingham from at least 1758. The tavern’s owner from 1768, the political ballad writer John Freeth, announced club dinners to its members with rhyming invitations.^[4] Liberal and radical, as much concerned with politics as with books,^[3] the club formed a focus for local support for the radical journalist and politician John Wilkes between 1768 and 1774,^[5] and for opposition to the Ministry of Lord North during the 1770s and 1780s.^[4]

The society held an annual sale of its books,^[3] and its members provided the nucleus of subscribers to the Birmingham Library, founded in 1779.^[6] The club was still in existence, with twelve members, in 1964.^[7]