In 1709, Sir Godfrey Copley, the MP for Thirsk, bequeathed Abraham Hill and Hans Sloane £ 100 (roughly equivalent to £17,156 in 2023) to be held in trust for the Royal Society "for improving natural knowledge to be laid out in experiments or otherwise for the benefit thereof as they shall direct and appoint". After the legacy had been received the following year, the interest of £5 was duly used to provide recurring grants for experimental work to researchers associated with the Royal Society, provided they registered their research within a stipulated period and demonstrated their experiments at an annual meeting. In 1726, following a proposal by Sloane, the grants were extended to "strangers" unaffiliated with the Society to encourage "new and useful experiments," though it was only five years later that Stephen Gray became the first such recipient. Prior to Gray, John Theophilus Desaguliers was apparently the only recipient of the grant, but had not always conducted the required annual demonstration.