Old Meeting Friendly Fund was commenced in 1819, and registered in 1824. Its capital at the close of the first year, was £5 14s. 10-1/2d.; at end of the tenth year (1828) it was nearly £264; in 1838, £646; in 1848, £1,609; in 1858, £3,419; 1868, £5,549; in 1878, £8,237; and at the end of 1883, £9,250 16s. 2d.;—a very fair sum, considering the numbers only numbered 446, the year's income being £877 and the out-goings £662.
Railway Guards' Friendly Fund was originated in this town in 1848. It has nearly 2,200 members; the yearly disbursements being about £6,000, and the payments £40 at death, with life pensions of 10s. and upwards per week to members disabled on the line. More than £85,000 has been thus distributed since the commencement.
Roman Catholic.—A local Friendly Society was founded in 1794, and a Midland Association in 1824.
Shepherds.—The Order of Shepherds dates from 1834, but we cannot get at the number of members, &c. August 9, 1883 (according to Daily Post), the High Sanctuary meeting of the Order of Shepherds was held in our Town Hall, when the auditor's report showed total assets of the general fund, £921 15s. 4d., and liabilities £12 6s. 9-1/2d. The relief fund stood at £292 18s. 8d., being an increase of £66 0s. 11d. on the year; and there was a balance of £6 13s. 9-1/2d. to the credit of the sick and funeral fund.
St. David's Society.—The members held their first meeting March 1, 1824.
St. Patrick's Benefit Society, dating from 1865 as an offshoot of the Liverpool Society, had at end of 1882, 3,144 members, the expenditure of the year was £857 (£531 for funerals), and the total value of the society £2,030.
Unitarian Brotherly Society, registered in 1825, has about 500 members, and a capital of £8,500.
United Brothers.—There are nearly 100 lodges and 10,000 members of societies under this name in Birmingham and neighbourhood, some of the lodges being well provided for capital, No. 4 having £8,286 to 186 members.
United Family Life Assurance and Sick Benefit Society claims to have some 8,500 members, 750 of whom reside in Birmingham.
United Legal Burial Society, registered in 1846, like the above, is a branch only.