John Townsend (24 March 1757 – 7 February 1826) was a Congregationalist minister, and founder of the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, the first public institution in England for deaf children.

Life

Townsend was born in

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

, London in 1757, son of Benjamin Townsend, a pewterer, and his wife Margaret. He was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

from 1766 until 1771, when he began a seven-year apprenticeship to his father. From 1774 he was drawn to preaching; in June 1781 he was ordained pastor of the Independent Church at

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable ...

. In the same month he married Cordelia Cahusac, and they later had children. He found that William Huntington, who resided in Kingston, was influencing his congregation by his

antinomian Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί 'anti''"against" and νόμος 'nomos''"law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term ha ...

views, so he resigned his charge, and in October 1784 became minister of the Independent Church in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...

, London. In 1792, with the assistance of Henry Cox Mason, rector of Bermondsey, Henry Thornton and others, he founded the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in the parish of Bermondsey. It rapidly grew in public esteem. On 11 July 1807 the first stone of a purpose-built school in

Old Kent Road Old Kent Road is a major thoroughfare in South East London, England, passing through the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally part of an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and used by the Anglo-Saxons who named it Wæceli ...

was laid by the Duke of Gloucester. The first headteacher was Joseph Watson, who had been educated at

Thomas Braidwood Thomas Braidwood (1715–1806) was a Scottish educator, significant in the history of deaf education. He was the founder of Britain's first school for the deaf. Early life The fourth child of Thomas Braidwood and Agnes Meek, Braidwood was born in ...

's school for the deaf. By 1815 the institution was greatly oversubscribed. (A second building was opened in

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

in 1876, and the entire school moved there from London in 1906; the institution, by then known as the Royal School for Deaf Children, closed in 2015.)The Royal School for Deaf Children
History of Place. Retrieved 13 November 2018. Townsend was also involved in founding the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

in 1794, and the British and Foreign Bible Society (for which he suggested the name) in 1802. In September 1810 Townsend, aware of the poverty of his fellow ministers and the insufficient education of their children, published a letter "To the Ministers, Officers, and all other Members and Friends of the Congregational Churches in England". In 1811 a school was established for the free education of the sons of poor independent ministers, and in 1815 a house was taken at Lewisham to accommodate the children. This school later became Caterham School."School History and Tradition"
Caterham School. Retrieved 23 October 2019. Townsend died in Bermondsey on 7 February 1826.

Publications

Townsend also published: * "Three Sermons addressed to Old, Middle-aged, and Young People" (London, 1797) * "Nine Sermons on Prayer" (London, 1799) * "Hints on Sunday-schools and Itinerant Preaching" (London, 1801) * An abridgement of Bunyan's ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christianity, Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a prog ...

'' (London, 1806) * A life of Jean Claude, prefixed to a translation of his "Defence of the Reformation" (London, 1815)

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, John 1757 births 1826 deaths Deaf education Founders of English schools and colleges People from Whitechapel 18th-century Congregationalist ministers 19th-century Congregationalist ministers People educated at Christ's Hospital Educators of the deaf