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41-457: This is a list of dissenting academies in England and Wales , operating in the 19th century . Over this period the religious disabilities of English Dissenters were lifted within the educational system, and the rationale for the existence of a system of general education parallel to that requiring Church of England beliefs therefore fell away. This provision of general education for Dissenters

82-470: A trust fund 'for the education and training up of young men ... to qualify them for the ministry of the gospel among the Protestant Dissenters', thus continuing the financial support he had given to such students in his lifetime". Sometimes this funding was organised along the lines of subscribers. The Coward Trust from 1743 funded Daventry Academy and a London academy under David Jennings , but

123-600: A "congregational assembly", consisting of ruling elders elected by the minister and members of the congregation, and meeting weekly. In practice, few parish assemblies became established. The execution of Charles I in 1649 horrified the Presbyterians and led to a serious rupture between them and the Independents . English Presbyterians came to be representative of those Puritans who still cherished further reformation in church, but were unwavering in their fundamental loyalty to

164-487: A Scottish university, or elsewhere. A gap opened up between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, as the Independents started to be called, for reasons of doctrine. The Independent or Congregational Fund Board was established in 1695 to assist poor ministers, and to give young men who had already received a classical education , the theological and other training preparatory to the Christian ministry. An early sign of

205-559: A conservatism in Christian doctrine , which kept the congregations orthodox and Calvinistic. The more open attitude of Presbyterian congregations led them to appoint ministers with a more liberal viewpoint, which, amongst other factors such as their ministers being trained in the Dissenting Academies , led to a growing heterodoxy into Arminianism , Arianism , and eventually Christian Unitarianism . The Presbyterian Church of England

246-528: A given academy was sent students with financial support. The Common Fund Board, founded in 1689, gave scholarships to Presbyterian and Congregational candidates for the ministry; its successor, the Presbyterian Fund Board, continued into the middle of the nineteenth century. An education at a dissenting academy was not the only option for the Fund Board, since a candidate could also be sponsored at

287-581: A short period (1714 to 1719) the Schism Act 1714 was in force, and aimed precisely to do that; but the troubles of the academies were mostly before this legislation. Proceedings in ecclesiastical courts were quite common in the seventeenth century, for example in the case of the tutor Benjamin Robinson . The degree of religious toleration in the later half of the seventeenth century varied considerably according to laws passed by Parliament, and also in line with

328-433: A six years' course, where young men, without a general classical education, would receive it during the first two years and could then proceed to the usual classical-theological course. These academies were funded partly by fees for tuition and lodging, as many of them were run in large houses as boarding establishments. They were also funded by philanthropic Dissenters such as William Coward (1647–1738), whose "will set up

369-526: A young minister in Warrington, established the academy. Among the tutors were Joseph Priestley (1761–1767) and Johann Reinhold Forster , a German scholar and naturalist. Forster went with Captain Cook in his second voyage round the world. Rathmell Academy , which had half a dozen homes, was set up by Richard Frankland in 1670. The school moved to Attercliffe , a suburb of Sheffield , Yorkshire , leaving it at

410-650: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography judges Morton's "probably the most impressive of the dissenting academies [prior to 1685], enrolling as many as fifty pupils at a time". The ODNB goes on to describe its advanced and varied curriculum (religion, classics, history, geography, mathematics, natural science, politics, and modern languages) and a well-equipped laboratory, and even "a bowling green for recreation". Lectures were given in English, not Latin, and Daniel Defoe , one of Morton's students, praised its attention to

451-703: The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales and the International Presbyterian Church have seen modest growth in England. Though the word Presbyterian dates to 1607, English Presbyterianism had its beginnings in 1558, the year of Elizabeth I 's accession, when Protestant exiles , who had fled Mary I's revived heresy laws and the associated executions , began to return to England. Some of these Elizabethan puritans began to campaign for ecclesiastical reform from within

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492-622: The Grand Remonstrance , and most importantly the beginning of a great debate within and without Parliament on the subject of church government. On 11 December 1640, 15,000 Londoners presented the Root and Branch petition to Parliament, which led to the Westminster Assembly of Divines . The Assembly reported in July 1645. Later that year, Parliament enacted for the establishment in every parish of

533-718: The Great Ejection . This was followed by more than a century of persecution, including further acts of Parliament such as the Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 . The Church of England had difficulty filling the vacancies caused by the ejection of so many ministers. In some cases, ministers continued to baptise, marry, and preach in the parish church, quite illegally. In general, the ejected ministers continued to preach to dispersed congregations, making use of now unused chapels of ease (most of which had been built with privately donated funds), and from their own homes. However, by

574-462: The Presbyterian Fund . While the religious reasons mattered most, the geography of university education also was a factor. The plans for a Durham College of Oliver Cromwell provided an attempt to break the educational monopoly of Oxbridge , and while it failed because of the political change in 1660 , the founder of Rathmell Academy was Richard Frankland , who may have been involved in

615-505: The Presbyterian form of church government . Dating in England as a movement from 1588, it is distinct from Continental and Scottish forms of Presbyterianism . The Unitarian historian Alexander Gordon (1841–1931) stated that, whereas in Scotland, church government is based on a meeting of delegates, in England the individual congregation is the primary body of government. This was

656-620: The established (i.e. state-supported ) Church of England . They sought to recreate the pattern of church life recorded in Scripture , without vestments and prelates , when church government was in the hands of presbyters . English Presbyterianism itself dates to the tumultuous year 1641, which saw the execution of the Earl of Stafford , the Imprisonment of the Twelve Bishops , the publication of

697-504: The 1690s. There were also cases of actions against dissenting grammar schools , for example the proceedings against Isaac Gilling in the 1710s. In 1723 the regium donum , initially a grant to support Irish Presbyterians, became a national subsidy, and subsequently dissenting academies were more generally accepted. Several early academies became associated with particular theological positions. Richard Frankland of Rathmell Academy and Timothy Jollie of Attercliffe , founders of two of

738-762: The Crown . Following the Restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II , and of the episcopal (bishop-led) system within the Church of England, Anglican ministers who favoured a Presbyterian polity found themselves in a dilemma. The Act of Uniformity 1662 required that they accept the Book of Common Prayer in its entirety, as well as the requirement of episcopal ordination . Ministers who did not accept, some 2,000 of them, were removed from their posts (and, usually, their homes as well) on St Bartholomew's Day , in what became known as

779-698: The Durham College project. Almost as soon as dissenting academies began to appear, Frankland was backed by those who wished to see an independent university-standard education available in the north of England. Tutors in the academies were initially drawn from the ejected ministers of 1662 , who had left the Church of England after the passing of the Uniformity Act , and many of whom had English university degrees. After that generation, some tutors did not have those academic credentials to support their reputations, although in many cases other universities, particularly

820-599: The Scottish institutions that were sympathetic to their Presbyterian views, awarded them honorary doctorates . There were several sources of funding. Some of these funds gave their trustees the option of sending young men either to dissenting academies, or to universities abroad. An academy, to attract such students, had to offer a course of instruction approved of by the Board for its purposes. Funding might be central or local, and there could be doctrinal as well as practical reasons why

861-410: The beliefs of the Church of England . As they were debarred from taking degrees in the only two English universities, many of them attended the dissenting academies. If they could afford it, they completed their education at the universities of Leyden , Utrecht , Glasgow or Edinburgh , the last, particularly, those who were studying medicine or law. Many students attending Utrecht were supported by

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902-596: The division between Presbyterians and Independents was the fate of the Rathmell Academy after the death of Frankland in 1698: it migrated to Manchester under John Chorlton , while another academy under Timothy Jollie , an Independent, operated at Attercliffe (one of the locations of Frankland's migratory academy) from the 1690s onwards. In 1730, the King's Head Society was founded by laymen in London who were dissatisfied with

943-562: The end of July 1689, in consequence of the death of his favourite son, and returning to Rathmell. His pupil Timothy Jollie , independent minister at Sheffield, began Attercliffe Academy , on a more restricted principle than Frankland's, apparently excluding mathematics "as tending to scepticism". English Presbyterianism Presbyterianism in England is practised by followers of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism who practise

984-429: The end of the century the remaining independent "dissenting" system in practical terms had become a network of nonconformist theological colleges . See List of dissenting academies (1660–1800) for the earlier history. See also List of English and Welsh endowed schools (19th century) for the parallel system of grammar schools. Dissenting academies After the Uniformity Act 1662 , for about two centuries, it

1025-463: The end of the seventeenth century, the Church of England had reclaimed these chapels of ease, and Dissenting congregations began to build their own chapels. Aside from Quaker meetings, the English Dissenters styled themselves as either ‘Independent’ or ‘Presbyterian’. The ’Independents’ , who might have a Calvinistic or a Baptist creed, regarded themselves as exclusive, and distinct from

1066-679: The management of the Congregational Fund Board. (It took its name from the pub behind the Royal Exchange at which they met). The chief point of objection was the Fund Academies' rule which limited students to those who had already passed through a classical training , including the demanding and lengthy training period required for learning to read Greek and Latin texts. The founders of the King's Head Society resolved to found an academy with

1107-566: The most celebrated early academies, opposed any departure from Calvinist theology . It was rumoured that Jollie even forbade mathematics "as tending to scepticism and infidelity", although several of his students later became extremely proficient in the mathematics. Some academies were more broadminded in their teaching methodology, and in their attitudes towards possible methods of church governance. Indeed, several students at dissenting academies later became Anglicans. The dissenters themselves argued that their academies had stricter discipline than

1148-418: The mother tongue. Samuel Wesley the elder , a contemporary of Defoe's, described his teacher "as universal in his learning", although he also attacked the academy on uncertain grounds for promoting king-killing doctrines. James Burgh , author of The Dignity of Human Nature and Thoughts on Education , opened his dissenting academy there in 1750. (His widow helped Mary Wollstonecraft establish her school in

1189-538: The nineteenth century the academies' original purpose to provide a higher education was largely superseded by the founding of the University of London and the provincial universities, which were open to dissenters, and by reform of Oxford and Cambridge. Newington Green , in those days a village north of London, had several academies. Charles Morton (1626–1698), the educator and minister who ended his career as vice-president of Harvard College , ran an influential academy;

1230-400: The parish church. The Presbyterians, on the other hand, though each congregation was as independent and autonomous as any Independent chapel, used the name ‘Presbyterian’ because they regarded the doors of their chapels as open to all members of the parish; or, at least, all members of the parish who were of good character. In effect, they regarded each chapel as just another parish church. It

1271-684: The practice in Gordon's day, however, most of the sixteenth and seventeenth century English theoreticians of Presbyterianism, such as Thomas Cartwright , John Paget , the Westminster Assembly of Divines and the London Provincial Assembly, envisaged a Presbyterian system composed of congregations, classes and synods. Historically Presbyterians in England were subsumed into the United Reformed Church in 1972. In more recent years

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1312-482: The public mood. Some academies, such as that of John Shuttlewood, operated in remote areas of the countryside, and some tutors were required to leave towns where they had previously performed their ministry, for example under the Five Mile Act . The Toleration Act 1688 under the reign of William III and Mary II did not mention the dissenters' academies, and proceedings continued against dissenting tutors throughout

1353-417: The universities, and were perceived by many to have promoted a more contemporary curriculum based on the practical sciences and modern history. In some of the larger academies French and High Dutch (German) were taught. The tutors and the students of the dissenting academies contributed in fundamental ways to the development of ideas, notably in the fields of theology, philosophy, literature, and science. In

1394-707: The village. ) Anna Laetitia Barbauld , so closely associated with other leading dissenting academies, chose to spend the latter third of her life in Newington Green. Homerton College, Cambridge started life as the dissenting academy Independent College, Homerton , then another village north of London. The Tewkesbury Academy , set up by Samuel Jones , had as its students both dissenters such as Samuel Chandler and those who became significant establishment figures such as Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Secker and Joseph Butler . Sheriffhales Academy, Shropshire (1663–1697) under John Woodhouse. Philip Doddridge

1435-442: Was chosen in 1723 to conduct the academy being newly established at Market Harborough . It moved many times, and was known as Northampton Academy, Doddridge died in 1751 and the academy continued. and is probably best known as Daventry Academy , which Joseph Priestley attended. The academy ended up in London under the name of Coward College , as it was largely supported by the bequest of William Coward who died 1738. The college

1476-665: Was difficult for any but practising members of the Church of England to gain degrees from Cambridge and Oxford, the ancient English universities. The University of Oxford , in particular, required – until the Oxford University Act 1854 – a religious test on admission that was comparable to that for joining the Church. At the University of Cambridge a statutory test was required to take a bachelor's degree. English Dissenters in this context were Nonconformist Protestants who could not in good conscience subscribe (i.e. conform) to

1517-412: Was distinct from the ordinary Congregational funding. The letter of the law could make the running of a dissenting academy difficult or impossible. In the general framework according to which schools must be licensed by the bishop, and ministers (who made up most of the teaching staff) could be in legal trouble for the activities that held together their congregations, some academies simply shut down. For

1558-562: Was founded in 1876 by merging of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian Church with various other Presbyterian congregations in England. In 1972, virtually all congregations of the Presbyterian Church of England combined with the majority of churches in the Congregational Church in England and Wales to form the United Reformed Church in England. In 1969 the International Presbyterian Church

1599-432: Was one of three that amalgamated in 1850 into New College London . Hugh Farmer was educated at this college in its earlier days. Shrewsbury Academy was started by James Owen in 1702. Owen died 1706 and his place was filled by Samuel Benion. The academy continued until Benion's death in 1708. Warrington Academy led eventually, via Manchester and York , to Harris Manchester College, Oxford . In 1757, John Seddon ,

1640-491: Was one of two functions of the academies, the other being the training of ministers (Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist and Unitarian). As the century progressed, there were the administrative changes and migrations seen in the 18th century, but also a gradual merging of some of the stronger dissenting academies into the developing university system. Colleges that were in effect nonconformist seminaries could also become theological institutions within universities. By

1681-597: Was this attitude which, at first, caused particular animosity towards Presbyterians from some Anglicans, who regarded them as schismatics , actively seeking to divide the Church in England . Outwardly, though, there was initially little difference between ‘Independents’ and ‘Presbyterians’, except that they received financial assistance from the Independent and the Presbyterian Fund boards, respectively. The exclusivity of Independent congregations tended to perpetuate

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