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).