The New College at Hackney (more ambiguously known as Hackney College) was a
dissenting academy 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, 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, which existed from 1799 to 1805.
Staff
Its staff included:
*
Thomas Belsham who left
Daventry Academy in 1789 on becoming a Unitarian, as professor of divinity and resident tutor
*
Andrew Kippis
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
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, who was tutor in Hebrew and mathematics
*
Gilbert Wakefield from 1790
Students
Among the students were:
*
Arthur Aikin
*
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 attended Priestley's lectures
*
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 ...
*
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
Daventry Academy with other students, including William Shepherd, in 1788, for religious reasons
*Harry Priestley, Dr Priestley's youngest son
*
Thomas Starling Norgate
*
William Shepherd
*
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 ...
.
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 ...
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 set up a successor Unitarian college at Hackney, in 1813.
See also
*
List of dissenting academies (1660–1800)
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