The New College at Hackney (more ambiguously known as Hackney College) was a

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

set up in Hackney in April 1786 by the social and political reformer

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the F ...

and others; Hackney at that time was a village on the outskirts of London, by Unitarians. It was in existence from 1786 to 1796. The writer

William Hazlitt William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary criticism, literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history ...

was among its pupils, sent aged 15 to prepare for the Unitarian ministry, and some of the best-known Dissenting intellectuals spent time on its staff.

History

The year 1786 marked the dissolution of Warrington Academy, which had been inactive since 1756 as a teaching institution. Almost simultaneously the Hoxton Academy of the

Coward Trust William Coward (1648–1738) was a London merchant in the Jamaica trade, remembered for his support of English Dissenters, particularly his educational philanthropy. Life After a period in Jamaica, where he built up an estate (see Sugar planta ...

, under Samuel Morton Savage, closed its doors in the summer of 1785. Some of the funding that had backed Warrington was available for a new dissenting academy for the London area, as well as for a northern successor in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. The London building plans were ambitious, but proved the undoing of the New College, which was soon strained financially. The successors in the movement as a whole were Manchester New College, and a new Exeter College under

Joseph Bretland Joseph Bretland (1742–1819), was an English Dissenter, dissenting Minister (Christianity), minister. Life He was the son of Joseph Bretland, an Exeter tradesman, was born at Exeter 22 May 1742. He was for several years a day scholar at the Exe ...

, which existed from 1799 to 1805.

Staff

Its staff included: *

Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister. Life 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 di ...

who left

Daventry Academy Daventry Academy was a dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by English Dissenters. It moved to many locations, but was most associated with Daventry, where its most famous pupil was Joseph Priestley. It had a high reputation, ...

in 1789 on becoming a Unitarian, as professor of divinity and resident tutor *

Andrew Kippis Andrew Kippis (28 March 17258 October 1795) was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer. Life The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham. Having gone to Carre's Grammar School in Sleaford, Lincolnshire he pas ...

* George Cadogan Morgan from 1787 to 1891, who lectured there on

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...

, resident in Hackney from 1791 to 1794, as lecturer on history and natural philosophy, principally chemistry *

Abraham Rees Abraham Rees (1743 – 9 June 1825) was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of '' Rees's Cyclopædia'' (in 45 volumes). Life He was the second son of Esther, daughter of Abraham Penry, and her husband Lewis Rees, and was born i ...

, who was tutor in Hebrew and mathematics *

Gilbert Wakefield Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801) was an English scholar and controversialist. He moved from being a cleric and academic, into tutoring at dissenting academies, and finally became a professional writer and publicist. In a celebrated state trial ...

from 1790

Students

Among the students were: *

Arthur Aikin Arthur Aikin (19 May 177315 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and later became ...

Francis Baily Francis Baily (28 April 177430 August 1844) was an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of " Baily's beads" during a total eclipse of the Sun. Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical S ...

John Bostock John Joseph Bostock (born 15 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Solihull Moors. Bostock made his professional debut for Crystal Palace at the age of 15. In 2008, he signed for Tottenham H ...

attended Priestley's lectures *

* Mary Hays * Thomas Dix Hincks * David Jones, previously at

Homerton College Homerton College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of English Dissenters, Protestant dissente ...

, moved to Hackney on becoming a Unitarian, then a tutor in experimental philosophy, moving away in 1792 to fill Priestley's ministry in Birmingham * John Jones, related to David Jones * Jeremiah Joyce * John Kentish, who left

with other students, including William Shepherd, in 1788, for religious reasons *Harry Priestley, Dr Priestley's youngest son * Thomas Starling Norgate *

William Shepherd William McMichael "Bill" Shepherd (born July 26, 1949), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is an American former Navy SEAL, aerospace, ocean, and mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut, who served as commander of Expedition 1, the first crew on the Internatio ...

* James Smith (1775–1839) *Joseph Lomas Towers * Charles Wellbeloved

Institutions with related names

Another Hackney College, properly Hackney Itineracy, also known as Hackney Academy and Hackney Theological College, was set up in 1802 by George Collison. It is this one that became part of

New College London New College London (1850–1980) (sometimes known as New College, St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 ...

, and in the end part of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

was at this time in the parish of Hackney, and had been in some form from 1730, as a less ambitious academy; when the New College folded, its future became part of Homerton College's, which since 1894 has been in Cambridge.

Robert Aspland Robert Aspland (13 January 1782 – 30 December 1845) was an English Unitarianism, Unitarian minister, editor and activist. To be distinguished from his son Robert Brook Aspland (1805-1869). Life Aspland was the son of Robert Aspland and his s ...

set up a successor Unitarian college at Hackney, in 1813.

Notes

{{authority control Dissenting academies Defunct universities and colleges in London 1780s in London 1790s in London 1786 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1786 1796 disestablishments in England

History

Staff

Students

Institutions with related names

See also

Notes