Ipswich and Suffolk Freehold Land Society (FLS) was founded in 1849 as part of the "forty-shilling freeholders movement" which developed across England. Its aim was to enable "the ordinary man" to obtain sufficient property to meet the requirements needed to gain the vote.[1] The movement had been started by James Taylor of Birmingham. On Saturday 1 December 1849 the first meeting of the society was advertised in the Suffolk Chronicle.[2] Richard Dykes Alexander, the head of the Alexander banking family, was the first president.[3]