Editing Lunar Society of Birmingham (section)

===The Lunar Society 1775–1780===
[[File:William Withering.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[William Withering]]]]If William Small's arrival in 1765 had been the catalyst to the development of the Lunar Circle as a cohesive group, his death – probably from malaria<ref name="King-Hele 1998 166"/> – in 1775 was to mark another change in its structure.<ref name="ref7">{{Harvnb|Schofield|1966|p=150}}</ref> Small had been the key link between the members, and in his absence those remaining moved to place the group on a more organised footing. Meetings were to be held on the Sunday nearest the full moon,<ref name="ref7" /> lasting from two o'clock in the afternoon until eight o'clock in the evening.<ref name="ref10">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1962|p=164}}</ref> The first was probably that held on 31 December 1775,<ref name="King-Hele 1998 166"/> and the "Lunar" name is first recorded in 1776.<ref name="Schofield 1963 17"/>

The era also saw significant changes in membership. [[William Withering]] – like Small, a physician – was already an acquaintance of Darwin, Boulton and Wedgwood when he moved from [[Stafford]] to Birmingham and became a member of the Society in 1776.<ref name="ref7" /> John Whitehurst's move to London in 1775 had a less dramatic effect: he kept in regular contact with other members of the society and remained an occasional attender of meetings.<ref name="ref7" />

The leading figure behind the establishment of the society as a more organised body during this early period seems to have been [[Matthew Boulton]]: his home at [[Soho House]] in [[Handsworth, West Midlands|Handsworth]] was the principal venue for meetings, and in 1776 he is recorded as planning "to make many Motions to the Members respecting new Laws, and regulations, such as will tend to prevent the decline of a society which I hope will be lasting."<ref name="ref10" /> This reliance on Boulton was also to prove a weakness, however, as the period coincided with the peak of his work building up his steam engine business and he was frequently absent. Although the 1770s was one of the society's richest eras in terms of its collaborative achievements, the society's meetings declined from regular occurrences in 1775 to infrequent ones by the end of the decade.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schofield|1963|pp=144–145}}</ref>