Palgrave Academy was an early

dissenting academy The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...

, that is, a school or college set up by

English Dissenters English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries. A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who disagrees in opinion, belief and ...

. It was run from 1774 to 1785 in

Palgrave, Suffolk Palgrave is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located on the south bank of the River Waveney, opposite Diss and adjacent to the Great Eastern Main Line. Palgrave has a small primary sch ...

, by the married couple

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

and her husband Rochemont Barbauld, a minister. The academy attracted parents who wished an alternative to traditional education for their sons.

Beginnings

Anna Laetitia Barbauld was born into the tradition of the so-called dissenting academies, as her father

John Aikin John Aikin (15 January 1747 – 7 December 1822) was an English medical doctor and surgeon. Later in life he devoted himself wholly to biography and writing in periodicals. Life He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son o ...

taught first at

Kibworth Kibworth is an area of the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, that contains two civil parishes in England, civil parishes: the villages of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt . At the 2011 census, Kibwor ...

Academy, where she received a better education than most girls and women of the day, and then at the renowned

Warrington Academy Warrington Academy, active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782, was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the established Church of England. It was located in Warrington (then p ...

, known as "the Athens of the North" for its stimulating intellectual atmosphere. Rochemont Barbauld, the grandson of a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

(French Dissenter), had been a pupil there; the couple married in 1774 and moved to

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, 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 the Barbaulds left in 1785, around forty were enrolled, a testament to the excellent reputation the school had acquired. The Barbaulds' educational philosophy attracted

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

s as well as Dissenters. Palgrave replaced the strict discipline of traditional schools such as

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

, which often used corporal punishment, with a system of "fines and jobations" and even, it seems likely, "juvenile trials", that 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 the school and wrote theatrical pieces for the pupils to perform.

Alumni

Pupils who later distinguished themselves include

Lord Chief Justice Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, (23 July 177926 September 1854) was an English lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice between 1832 and 1850. Background and education Denman was born in London, the son of Dr Thomas Den ...

, scholar and translator William Taylor, settler of early Canada

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

, and archaeologist

Sir William Gell Sir William Gell FRS (29 March 17774 February 1836) was a British classical archaeologist and illustrator. He published topographical illustrations of Troy and the surrounding area in 1804. He also published illustrations showing the results ...

. Barbauld had a profound effect on many of her students; Taylor, a preeminent scholar of

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

, referred to her as "the mother of my mind".Qtd. in Rodgers, 75.

References

{{authority control Anna Laetitia Barbauld Defunct schools in Suffolk Dissenting academies Educational institutions established in 1774 1774 establishments in England 1785 disestablishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in the 1780s