The Roxburgh club was formed after the great auction of books from the estate John Ker in May 1812 by participants in the auction & headed by the second Earl Spencer.   Sir Walter Scott had this to say about the club:

"The number of noblemen and gentlemen distinguished by their taste for this species of literature, who assembled there (at the sale) from day to day, and lamented or boasted the event of the competition, was unexampled; and in short the concourse of attendants terminated in the formation of a society of about thirty amateurs, having the learned and amiable earl Spencer at their head, who agreed to constitute a club, which should have for its object of union the common love of rare and curious volumes, and should be distinguished by the name of that nobleman, at the dispersion of whose library the proposal had taken its rise, and who had been personally known to most of the members. 

"We are not sure whether the publication of rare tracts was an original object of their friendly re-union, or, if it was not, how and when it came to be engrafted thereupon. Early, however, after the formation of the Roxburgh Club, it became one of its rules, that each member should present the society, at such time as he might find most convenient, with an edition of a curious manuscript, or the reprint of some ancient tract, the selection being left at the pleasure of the individual himself. These books were to be printed in a handsome manner, and uniformly, and were to be distributed among the gentlemen of the club.   Under this system, the Roxburgh Club has proceeded and flourished for many years, and produced upwards of forty reprints of scarce and curious tracts, among which many are highly interesting, not only from their value, but also their intrinsic merit."   [Quarterly Review, Vol. xiiv. 447.]

This book loving club has been the model of several others in different parts of the world. Including the La Societé des Biblioglyphes in Paris & the Grolier Society in the USA.