Highbury Collegewas adissenting academy,that is, a school or college set up byEnglish Dissenters.Its most famous student wasChristopher Newman Hall.It had a high reputation, and in time it was amalgamated intoNew College London.
History
editIt was set up inMile Endin 1783, moved toHoxtonin 1791, and then toHighburyin 1826.[1]Trustees had acquired about five acres of land, and for £22 000 had commissionedJohn Daviesto build a new college. By 1854, following the amalgamation of Highbury College into New College London, the building had become ateacher training college,and in 1866 it reverted to atheological college,this time for theChurch of England[2]
Samuel Lewisin his 1831A Topographical Dictionary of Englanddescribes the students as "single men, eighteen years of age and upwards, producing testimonials of their piety, and being able to translate Virgil, having also some acquaintance with the Greek grammar, fractional arithmetic, and the elements of geography" and the curriculum as "Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac languages, thebelles lettres,intellectual and moral philosophy, the mathematics, history, biblical criticism, the composition of sermons, theology, Hebrew antiquities, &c. " [3]
Brown judges it the "largest and most prestigious" of the Dissenting Academies,[4]but still, this meant it had only 40 students in the 1830s.[5]
Associated people
editRev. Dr.Christopher Newman Hall(1816–1902), known in later life as a 'Dissenter's Bishop', was one of the most celebrated nineteenth century English Nonconformist divines. He was active in social causes; supportingAbraham Lincolnandabolition of slaveryduring theAmerican Civil War,theChartistcause, and arranging for influential Nonconformists to meetGladstone.Come to Jesus,first published in 1848 also contributed to his becoming a household name throughout Britain, the US and further afield - by the end of the century the book had been translated into about forty languages and sold four million copies worldwide.
References
edit- ^The changing shape of English nonconformity, 1825-1925Dale A. Johnson. OUP:1999
- ^'Islington: Growth: Highbury', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 37-41. URL:http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=1175Date accessed: 15 January 2010.
- ^Lewis, Samuel. A Topographical Dictionary of England Vol 2. United Kingdom, S. Lewis. 1835, p501
- ^A social history of the nonconformist ministry in England and Wales, 1800-1930.Kenneth Douglas Brown. Clarenden Press, Oxford. 1988, p64
- ^A social history of the nonconformist ministry in England and Wales, 1800-1930.Kenneth Douglas Brown. Clarenden Press, Oxford. 1988, p75