Birmingham Bean Club

The Birmingham Bean Club was a loyalist dining club founded in Birmingham, England shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, serving as a forum for confidential discussion between the leading Tory citizens of the growing industrial town and the gentlemen of the surrounding counties. It both reflected and encouraged the 18th century establishment of Birmingham as the political hub of the surrounding region, seeking to accommodate the political implications of the development of Birmingham within the framework of the 18th century constitution. By the end of the century the club was described as including "representatives of the Magnates of the County, the Gentlemen and Tradespeople of the town, the Clergy and the officers from the Barracks, and the principal representative actors from the local theatre".

In a town with a tradition of Radicalism and an influential Nonconformist minority, the Bean Club was strongly Tory and exclusively Anglican. No Dissenter was ever admitted, and its membership excluded not just influential local Whig aristocrats such as the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Conway and Lord Archer, but also more moderate Tories such as the Earl of Aylesford, and influential conservative Birmingham Anglicans who were closely associated with Dissenters, such as Matthew Boulton and Samuel Garbett.

The club was re-established in May 1749 and quickly built up a national importance. Its leading figures – Lord Craven, Lord Leigh and, from the mid-1750s, the Earl of Denbigh – effectively controlled the selection of Members of Parliament for Warwickshire during the early and mid 18th century. The 1750s and 1760s were difficult times for Toryism nationwide, however, and the club's fortunes reflected this. Meetings were cut back from weekly to monthly in 1753, and in 1759 they were further reduced to annual occasions. This era also saw strained relations between the Birmingham and country members: only 42 of the 387 members in 1755 were from Birmingham and there is evidence of tension between the groups. Most notably, no attempt was made to elect Samuel Aris when he succeeded his father Thomas Aris as editor of the conservative Birmingham Gazette in 1761.

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