On this day in vegan history · September 30, 1847
The Word 'Vegetarian' Gets an Organization
A hydropathic hotel on the Kent coast hosted the meeting that turned scattered flesh-abstainers into a movement with a name and a membership list.
The facts
- Date
- 30 September 1847
- Location
- Northwood Villa Hydropathic Institute, Ramsgate, Kent
- Chaired by
- Joseph Brotherton, MP for Salford
- Officers elected
- James Simpson (president), William Oldham (treasurer), William Horsell (secretary)
On 30 September 1847, reformers from Salford's Bible Christian Church, a London plant-based health circle around Dr. William Lambe, and other food-reform strands met at the Northwood Villa Hydropathic Institute in Ramsgate to formalize an idea floated earlier that year. Joseph Brotherton, the MP for Salford and himself a Bible Christian, chaired the meeting. The attendees elected James Simpson president, William Oldham treasurer, and William Horsell secretary, and voted to call the new body the Vegetarian Society. It was the first organization in the world built specifically around that diet and that name.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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On 30 September 1847, the meeting planned at the Physiological Conference took place at Northwood Villa Hydropathic Institute in Ramsgate.
Wikipedia, "Vegetarian Society" article
Source: Wikipedia -
The name 'Vegetarian Society' was chosen for the new organisation by a unanimous vote.
Wikipedia, "Vegetarian Society" article
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Every group that has since called itself vegetarian, or built on that label to coin vegan a century later, traces back to a name chosen by vote in a Ramsgate hotel. It gave a loose set of dietary convictions a shared identity to organize around.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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