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The Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1849 following discussions among "several gentlemen of Taunton and its neighbourhood." It was one of several such organisations established in the English shires during the 1840s, and reflected the early Victorian flowering of interest in county history and archaeology, as well as in the natural environment. By 1851, the society had 420 members - including large numbers of the Somerset gentry and clergy - and published that year the first volume of its annual Proceedings. It was also beginning in those early years to collect items for a society library and museum. In June 1874, however, the status and ambitions of the society were dramatically transformed when it acquired Taunton's medieval castle as its new headquarters. The castle had for centuries been the administrative centre of the great manor of Taunton Deane, owned by the bishops of Winchester, and achieved notoriety in 1685 as the setting for the Bloody Assizes. By the early 20th century the society had not only succeeded in rescuing Taunton Castle, but had secured a national reputation as a collector and publisher, and as a promoter of field meetings and archaeological excavation.