Wymondley College

Wymondley House in 2005, the former home of Wymondley College

Wymondley College was a dissenting academy at Wymondley House in Little Wymondley, Hertfordshire, England. Intended for the education of future nonformist ministers of religion, it was in operation from 1799 to 1832/33. It was also known as Wymondley Academy and Wymondley House.

History

In 1799, a philanthropic trust established by William Coward took possession of Wymondley House in Little Wymondley, Hertfordshire. They intended it to be a replacement home for the Daventry Academy, a somewhat peripatetic institution which had last been based in Northampton. It had closed that location in 1798 on receiving a report that John Horsey, whom it had placed in charge there in 1789, was preaching Socinianism.

The Coward Trust spent £4,258 on purchase and renovation of the Wymondley building, enlarging it to accommodate two tutors and 24 students in their pursuit of studies for dissenting ministry. The trust also determined that the school should be known as Wymondley House, although in practice even in its own day it was more commonly referred to as Wymondley College or Wymondley Academy.

William Parry was given the role as theological tutor at the new site, with overall management being the responsibility of four trustees. he was assisted in the teaching of classics and mathematics by William Ward, who had been educated at the Independent College, Homerton and then been minister at Uppingham. Ward resigned in 1804 after a disagreement with Parry, and his replacement, William Brown, left in 1807 when students complained about him. Two more short-lived holders of the assistant's post followed, with Henry Forster Burder and Alexander Bower both staying a year, before John Bailey was appointed in December 1809. Bailey's death in 1818 led to another brief tenure, as a former student at the college, William Day, was found by Parry to have been depraved in his conduct. Parry died in January 1819, not long after reporting Day to the trustees.

John Atkinson, who had previously been headmaster at Mill Hill School and a tutor of classics at another dissenting academy, Hoxton College, replaced Parry. As with his predecessor, Atkinson had problems maintaining discipline. In February 1821, the trustees told him that he was unsuitable for the post, which in turn may have caused him to die soon after following a paralytic seizure. His successor was briefly Joseph Turnbull and then Thomas Morrell, who held the post until the closure of the college in 1833. Morell, who had been an Independent minister at St Neots in Huntingdonshire, was assisted until September 1822 by Turnbull, whom the trustees then deemed to be unsuitable. Turnbull's replacement as assistant was Robert Lee of Cambridge, who tenure was ended two years later following what was described as a "moment of weakness" involving a female servant while his wife was away.

There had been an approach from the Bristol Theological Insitution in 1819, suggesting that the academy should move to Bristol but the proposal was dismissed. The first evidence of a serious intent to move location is documented in December 1831, when the trustees thought a shift to London would open opportunities to access teaching at the University of London, which had recently opened. Suitable premises were soon found, the site at Wymondley was closed and sold, and the college moved to Byng Place in London, where it was known as Coward College. Morrell, who had initially been sceptical of moving, became theological tutor at the new institution. Turnbull's successor as assistant, William Hull, was told that his services would not be required there and thus in 1832 he decided to become a minister in Enfield. Classics tutoring for the brief period thereafter was done by Richard Cotterell Evans.

Following the closure of the college, Wymondley House became a boys' boarding school and later had numerous other uses. The structure was listed Grade II* in 1968.

Notable people

Notable former students and teachers of the dissenting academy include:

• Thomas Binney
• Henry Forster Burder
• John Curwen
• David Everard Ford
• William Harris Murch
• William Parry

See also

• List of dissenting academies (1660–1800)

References

Notes

Citations

Further reading

• McLachlan, Herbert (1931). English Education Under the Test Acts: Being the History of the Nonconformist Academies, 1662-1820. Manchester University Press.
• Parker, Irene (1914). Dissenting academies in England: their rise and progress, and their place among the educational systems of the country. Cambridge University Press.