The parish of Alderley in Cheshire comprised three townships: Great Warford, Over Alderley and Nether Alderley. The Alderley Society, founded in 1752, was a sick-benefit club whose members were originally labourers and craftsmen. It later embraced all sections of local society. Members paid a 1s entrance fee and a monthly subscription of 6d, with a fine of 1d per month for non-payment of subscriptions. By the end of 1752 the Society had twenty-six members. By 1773 there were fifty-five members, representative of all but the larger farmers and the servants in the county families and gentry.
For further information on the Alderley Society, see Clarice Stella Davies, The agricultural history of Cheshire, 1750-1850 (Manchester: Printed for the Chetham Society, 1960), pp. 102-4.