Anna Letitia Barbauld née Aikin was an influential author and poet of the Romantic Period, educated at Warrington. While she wasn’t a student per se, Her father, John Aikin’s teaching position exposed her to the atmosphere of the academy as well as brought academics into the home, helping expand her educational horizons and nurture her on the path to create great and unique poetry. Without the progressive natural sciences curriculum of Warrington, Barbauld would not have had the scientific background to write “A Summer Evening’s Meditation” involving a cosmological journey to find the home of God in the known solar system. Nor would Barbauld, without her time at Warrington, have been nurtured and inspired, in her poetry, by Mr. Joseph Preistley: the subject, at least tangentially, of many of her early poems, such as “The Mouse’s Petition”
note: there are two John Aikin-s one is Anna’s father, the other is her brother, both taught, though the author of The Calendar of Nature from my other post is the sibling, not the parent
The Test Act: the Original Standardized Testing Nightmare
To explain the need for Warrington Academy you have to understand a few things about the history of British religious freedoms.
Once upon a time England (read Henry VIII) got mad at the Pope and started their (his) own church, and all the protestants said “yay, no more Pope means religious freedom :D” But they were wrong, because Henry actually just made everyone follow him the same way they had followed the Pope before. Some people were kinda mad about this, the Roman Catholics, the other protestants, various and sundry groups were rather miffed, miffed enough to want to over throw the govn’t in some cases. To make sure that none of the dissenters that wanted to over throw the govn’t could sneak into office, or otherwise be influential, Charles II put the Test act into place, barring those outside the CoE from public duties and privileges.
From the objective distance of the textbook:
“The Corporation Act, passed in 1661, and the Test Act, passed in 1673,excluded all who refused to take communion in the [CoE] from voting, attending university, or working in [govn’t] or in the professions.” (Norton A46)
but from the emotional zeal of the moment:
"Contrary to the first principles of justice, they are subjected to punishment with out the imputation of guilt--amerced of the common privileges of citizens, without the suspicion of offence,--and condemned to perpetual degradation and dishonor, unless they will consent to incur the guilt of renouncing that right of private judgement, in matters of religion, which the God of Nature has given them." (Beaufoy 6)
"The Corperation Act declares, that no person shall be elected into any corporation office, who shall not, within one year before such election, have taken the sacrement of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England. The Test Act declares that every person who accepts a civil office, or commission in the army or navy, and who does not within the time period described by the Act, take the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England, shall be disabled in law, to all intents and purposes whatever, from occupying any such civil office, or holding any such military commission; and if, without taking the sacramental qualification within the time prescribed by the Act, he does continue to occupy a civil office, or hold a military commission, and is lawfully convicted, then Sir, (and I beg leave to intreat the attention of the House to this most extraordinary punishment,) then he not only incurs a large pecuniary penalty, but is disabled, from thenceforth and for ever, from bringing any action in course of law, from prosecuting any suit in any court of equity, from being the guardian of a child, or executor of administrator of any person, as well as from receiveing any legacy" (Beaufoy 11)
Since the rational dissenters weren’t allowed to pursue a university education, they had to find other routes for the education of their children. To this purpose Warrington and the other dissenting academies were founded.
Without the weight of tradition and high church theology, Warrington was able to offer an education that many wealthy and influential families began to feel was actually more valuable and practial than the traditional degrees offered at the universities and so Warrington became a progressive and diverse learning environment (for the time).
This open door policy gained needed allies for the dissenters in the political sphere such as Henry Beaufoy, the above speaker, who attended Warrington from 1767-70, and brought one of the first motions to repeal the Test Act to parliament.
He failed, but was at least willing to try. In fact, a lot of people failed. The restrictions on protestant dissenters hung around well into the 19th century with the vote only being extended in 1828, and university access only gained in 1871 (A47)
for further reading:
if you want to read the rest of the lovely speeches against the Test Act from those who stood with Mr. Beaufoy:
Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. “Debate on the repeal of the test and corporation act, in the House of Commons, March 28th, 1787; Containing the speeches of Mr. Beaufoy, Sir Harry Houghton, Lord North, Lord Beauchamp, Mr. Smith, Sir James Johnstone, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Mr. Young, Mr. Courtenay, and Sir W. Dolben”. London, MDCCLXXXVII. [1787]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. University of South Florida. 1 Dec. 2015
or if you just want to read more about Mr. Beaufoy himself:
and as always the lovely historical sections of the Norton Anthology of English Literature: Vol D are a lovely starting point for any general knowledge quandries
In my first post I explained that it wasn’t as easy to find Warrington Academy as one might think. You can’t just type it into your GPS and follow directions (you will probably end up at an entirely different school called warrington collegiate or something). That’s because the building has been re-purposed.
Sometime after closing its doors in the mid 1780′s, the building was purchased by a local newspaper, The Warrington Guardian. Since that time, the Guardian has cared for the building up to and including picking it up and moving it--Howl’s Moving Castle style-- to carry it out of the way of local infrastructure projects.
In the British tradition of house naming, the Guardian has also honored the historical title in the current address:
Warrington Guardian,
The Academy,
138 Bridge Street,
Warrington,
Cheshire
to read more about how one moves a “600 tonne” building:
Oddly enough, the thing I thought would be hardest to find, samples of curriculum, was actually the thing that just threw itself at me on my first search.
^cover page of Aikin, John. The Calendar of Nature... Dublin : Printed for H Chamberlaine, No. 5. College green, 1789.
For those having trouble with the type, or the abysmal digitization (scanning job)--I can and have done better with a commercially available scanner and photoshop, seriously the only excuse for this was if it was digitized before 2005-- the text here says:
“The Calender of Nature; designed for the Instruction and Entertainment of young persons,
Educated at Warrington and many other principal Academies in England; and re-printed for the Use of the Young Ladies and Gentlemen at Mrs. Wekes’s, Mr. Bate’s, and Mr. Coyne’s Academies in Dublin.
Dublin: Printed for H. Chamberlaine; No. 5, College green, MDCCLXXXIX”
I don’t think I am allowed to show you more of the image scans (probably not even supposed to reproduce this one, stupid copyright :p ) because of the terms and conditions of the archive that I pulled it from, which is really unfortunate because it is a really interesting look at early examples of textbooks.
Traditional universities--Cambridge, Oxford-- had been using the same classics based curriculum since the 1500′s (norton 39), it is the new dissenting academies, like Warrington, that were making their own curriculum and supporting texts.
The Calendar of Nature is a cross-discipline anthology of history, natural sciences, and literature, which shows a real attempt to help students connect to the material. The January ‘chapter’ for example, explains how and why January 1st was set as the start of the new year rather than the more thematically significant start of spring, the process of freezing water, and observations related to the properties of snow and other ice, and includes poems by contemporary authors on related winter-y subjects.
this way of organizing information is possibly less structured than what we use today, but it allows the student to connect what they learn in class with observations they can make in daily life, as well as answering questions (like the bit about how the start of the year was chosen) at times when the student may already be wondering. I know I for one did not know the reason until I read it here. hint: it has to do with astronomy and observable phenomena
for further reading check to see if you can open the full scanned document:
I accessed this through my university’s catalog, but it exists in an external database and is housed originally at Cambridge University, so if you cannot access it try logging in through a college, university, or possibly even your high school or public library to access the database. Barring all that if you can find someone to email, most university libraries are pretty cool about sending scanned copies of things. Best of luck :)
The Norton Anthology of English Literature:The Romantic Period. Vol.D. 9th ed. London: W. W. Norton & co, 2012. print. pages 39, A46-A47.
full name of the reader is:
The calendar of nature; designed for the instruction and entertainment of young persons. Educated at Warrington and many other principal academies in England; and reprinted for the use of the young ladies and gentlemen at Mrs. Wekes's, Mr. Bates's, and Mr. Coyne's academies in Dublin
Warrington was founded in 1756 as a dissenting protestant alternative to the Anglican Church (Church of England) controlled universities such as Cambridge and Oxford--The CoE is also protestant, but the dissenting protestants also refused to take up with the official Church of England--because at the time The Test Act prevented anyone who was not confirmed in the CoE from enrolling at a university, or holding govn’t employment (Norton) Yay for no legislatively guaranteed freedom of religion, you know, or not.
The Academy was supported by businessmen who were beginning to question the value of the traditional university education in an industrial society. To that end Warrington offered more pragmatic classes such as “chemistry, electricity, logic, magnetism, optics, [and] pneumatics as well as the more traditional subjects ... ethics, philosophy and theology” - “Warrington Academy and the Academy Movement.” Technical Education Matters. Technical Education matters, 4 September 2009, web. 29 nov 2015.
To read more about the background and founding purpose of Warrington Academy or the historical religious restriction on non-anglicans in England check out:
It is harder than it looks, because it isn’t called Warrington Academy anymore.
Start in England, and go to Cheshire. It used to be Lancashire, but now it is Cheshire. Boundries are silly things, they don’t really exist, they move. Anyway, now it is Cheshire--like the cat.
^itraveluk. “Ceremonial Counties of England,” n. d. GIF file.
Then once you are in Cheshire, you look for Warrington. It’s near the top.
^smoothhound. “Cheshire Map,” n. d. GIF file.
Within Warrington--which is actually pretty big--is a street called Bridge Street, where the building formerly known as Warrington Academy resides.
