A manuscript on labour history and working class organisation in Scotland 1839-1856. A substantial journal recording the minutes and agendas of two self-help societies in Scotland, based in Fenwick, near Kilmarnock: The Fenwick Improvement of Knowledge Society from January 7th 1839 to Nov 23rd 1842 when the Society closed. This journal records every meeting and represents about half of the Society`s life since it had been running from 1834 (the years 1834 to 1839 are missing). The Society was reconstituted in 1846 as the Fenwick Mutual Improvement Society and this journal runs to May 5 1856. The journal includes the full constitution, list of members and accounts of every meeting, including the issues debated over the ten year period. The journal which contains the two sets of meeting notes, comprises 90 leaves written on both sides (i.e. 180 pages in all) in various hands. Inside the journal is inserted a long article from the Kilmarnock Standard May 14, 1938, with text and pictures on "Old days in Fenwick. Round the Kirtoun and Village". Fenwick was a small weaving and shoemaking community near Kilmarnock and the journal details the political and social topics that were debated: Ireland , the revolutions in Europe, Chartism, the unpopularity of the army, "ought papists to be placed under civil disabilities?", the good or bad results of reading fictitious literature, spirit rapping. It is very rare for such a detailed account of an artisan self- improvement group to survive.