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18-530: Anna Laetitia Barbauld was born into the tradition of the so-called dissenting academies, as her father John Aikin taught first at Kibworth Academy, where she received a better education than most girls and women of the day, and then at the renowned Warrington Academy , known as "the Athens of the North" for its stimulating intellectual atmosphere. Rochemont Barbauld, the grandson of a Huguenot (French Dissenter), had been

36-540: A chapter titled "American Unitarianism" arguing that many American clergy entertained Unitarian views. The Calvinist minister Jedidiah Morse published the chapter separately, as part of his campaign against New England's liberal ministers—contributing to "the Unitarian Controversy " (1815) that eventually produced permanent schism among New England's Congregationalist churches. His main Christological work

54-400: A profound effect on many of her students; Taylor, a preeminent scholar of German literature , referred to her as "the mother of my mind". Attending the school was the children of Norwich matriarch Sarah Martineau (née Meadows) (1725-1800), including her youngest son Thomas Martineau (1764–1826), one of the earliest boys enrolled at the academy. Sarah's brother, Philip Meadows (1719–83),

72-410: A pupil there; the couple married in 1774 and moved to Suffolk , near where Rochemont had been offered a congregation and this school for boys. The couple spent eleven years teaching at Palgrave Academy. Early on, Anna Laetitia Barbauld was not only responsible for running her own household but also the school's—she was accountant, maid, and housekeeper. The school opened with only eight boys, but when

90-457: A solicitor from nearby Diss provided financial support for the school. John Aikin (Unitarian) John Aikin (1713–1780) was an English Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy , a prominent dissenting academy . Aikin was born in 1713 in London . His father, a linen-draper, came originally from Kirkcudbright , in southern Scotland. He

108-403: Is trials run by and for the pupils themselves. Moreover, instead of the traditional classical studies, the school offered a practical curriculum that stressed science and the modern languages. Mrs Barbauld taught the foundation subjects of reading and religion to the youngest boys and geography, history, composition, rhetoric, and science to the older boys. She also produced a "weekly chronicle" for

126-775: The New College at Hackney , and was, on Priestley's departure in 1794, also called to the charge of the Gravel Pit congregation . In 1805, he accepted a call to the Essex Street Chapel , which was also headquarters and offices of the Unitarian Church under John Disney , there succeeding as minister Theophilus Lindsey who had retired and died three years later in 1808. Belsham remained at Essex Street, in gradually failing health, until his death in Hampstead, on 11 November 1829. He

144-464: The Barbaulds left in 1785, around forty were enrolled, a testament to the excellent reputation the school had acquired. The Barbaulds' educational philosophy attracted Anglicans as well as Dissenters. Palgrave replaced the strict discipline of traditional schools such as Eton , which often used corporal punishment , with a system of "fines and jobations" and even, it seems likely, "juvenile trials", that

162-403: The academy at Kibworth and a teacher who was influential on the dissenting educational tradition. Their two children were John Aikin , physician and author, and Anna Letitia Barbauld , an author and literary critic who published in multiple genres, including poetry, essays, and children's literature . Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 1750 – 11 November 1829)

180-453: The degree of D.D. Returning from Aberdeen, he was ordained, and after a short period of work as Doddridge's assistant, he accepted a dissenting congregation at Market Harborough . Bad health made him take up teaching; he tutored Thomas Belsham at Kibworth, which lies between Market Harborough and Leicester ; other pupils of Aikin were Newcome Cappe (at an earlier period), Thomas Cogan , and Thomas Simpson. At Warrington Academy he

198-591: The more Bible-critical positions of Priestley's generation. Belsham adopted critical ideas on the Pentateuch by 1807, the Gospels by 1819, and Genesis by 1821. Later, following Priestley, Belsham was to dismiss the virgin birth as "no more entitled to credit, than the fables of the Koran, or the reveries of Swedenborg." (1806) Belsham's first work of importance, Review of Mr Wilberforces Treatise entitled Practical View (1798),

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216-531: The school and wrote theatrical pieces for the pupils to perform. A number of distinguished parents enrolled their boys at Palgrave, including the nephew of Lady Jane McCarthy, daughter of Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute , King George III's favourite. Pupils who later distinguished themselves include Lord Chief Justice Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman , scholar and translator William Taylor , settler of early Canada Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk , and archaeologist Sir William Gell . Barbauld had

234-566: Was A Calm Inquiry into the Scripture Doctrine concerning the Person of Christ (1817). Belsham was one of the most vigorous and able writers of his church, and the Quarterly Review and Gentlemans Magazine of the early years of the 19th century abound in evidences that his abilities were recognized by his opponents. [Thomas Belsham et al.,] The New Testament , An improved version upon

252-662: Was an English Unitarian minister. Belsham was born in Bedford , England , and was the elder brother of William Belsham , the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry , where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor. After three years spent in a charge at Worcester , he returned as head of Daventry Academy , a post which he continued to hold till 1789, when, having adopted Unitarian principles, he resigned. With Joseph Priestley for colleague, he superintended during its brief existence

270-587: Was buried in Bunhill Fields burial ground, in the same tomb as Theophilus Lindsey. His joint executors were Thomas Field Gibson and his father. Belsham's beliefs reflect that transition that the Unitarian movement was going through during his lifetime, particularly from the early Bible-fundamentalist views of earlier English Unitarians like Henry Hedworth (who introduced the word "Unitarian" into print in English from Dutch sources in 1673) and John Biddle , to

288-535: Was one of the first three tutors in 1757, teaching classics . In 1761, Aikin became tutor in divinity , and was succeeded in his old duties by Joseph Priestley . Priestley says of the tutors: ‘We were all Arians, and the only subject of much consequence on which we differed respected the doctrine of Atonement , concerning which Dr. Aikin held some obscure notions.’ Aikin's health began to fail in 1778; soon afterwards he resigned his tutorship, and died in 1780. Aikin married Jane, daughter of John Jennings , founder of

306-496: Was placed for a short time as French clerk in a mercantile house, but entered Kibworth Academy, then run by Philip Doddridge , for whom Aikin was the first pupil. He then went to Aberdeen University , where the anti- Calvinist opinions of the tutors gradually led him to Low Arianism , as it was then called, which afterwards became the distinguishing feature of the Warrington Academy . Aberdeen subsequently conferred upon him

324-825: Was written after his conversion to Unitarianism. His most popular work was the Evidences of Christianity ; the most important was his translation and exposition of the Epistles of St Paul (1822). He was also the author of a work on philosophy , Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1801), which is entirely based on Hartley's psychology. In 1812 Belsham published the Memoirs of the Late Reverend Theophilus Lindsey , M.A. , his predecessor at Essex Street. This included

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