Correspondence of Frederick Bate

Administrative / Biographical History

The Association of All Classes of All Nations, founded in May 1835, sought to "carry into practical operation the system of society propounded by Robert Owen." Initial progress was slow; membership was concentrated in London. By the 1837 annual conference, however, delegates were present from a number of northern manufacturing districts. A "social missionary and tract society" was formed and a "patriarchal" structure of government established. Owen presided over the Association; first as "Preliminary Father" and, after 1837, as "Rational Social Father." The Association's Manchester office oversaw the publication of Owen's "New Moral World."

Source: R. Podmore, Robert Owen: A Biography (London, 1906).