The Letters Patent granted the 'Establishment of a Board Society or Body Corporate for the Encouragement of Agriculture’, is dated 23 August 1793. The two manuscripts (with a fine engraved portrait of King George III and the Great Seal appended) established a body that is remarkable in the history of farming, and which is known as The Old Board of Agriculture, which paved the way for RASE in the 19th century. The Letters Patent have great iconic significance in representing the idea that agricultural improvements could be undertaken systematically: that methods could be shared and knowledge pooled.
The manuscripts are available to researchers in our reading room (open to all, free of charge), and in the wide range of teaching, learning and community engagement activities in which MERL participates.