Unitarian Church

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Frances Power Cobbe
The agnostic FPC wrote her best-known hymn, beginning For life, for health I bless Thee; it was popular later in the century in Unitarian and non-denominational hymn books.
qtd. in
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
68
Cultural formation Catherine Hutton
CH grew up in a Dissenting family which suffered for its beliefs. She had a number of Quaker friends, to whom she unembarrassedly used thou and thee. She wrote that she almost became a...
Cultural formation Eliza Cook
EC was brought up as a respectable tradesman's daughter.
Miles, Alfred H., editor. The Poets and the Poetry of the Century. Hutchinson, 1892–1897, 10 vols.
271
Commentators are divided on whether this made her middle- or working-class, but her father had enough wealth to retire from active business while she was...
Cultural formation Bessie Rayner Parkes
BRP , who had long ceased to be a Unitarian and become an agnostic, experienced a gradual change in religious beliefs, which ended in her conversion to Roman Catholicism .
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan, 1941.
3
Banks, Olive. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. New York University Press, 1985–2024, 2 vols.
Cultural formation Ann Jebb
She was born into the English professional class, with connections in the nobility, and brought up in the Anglican church. As an adult she became, like her husband, an early Unitarian .
Meadley, George William. “Memoir of Mrs. Jebb”. The Monthly Repository, Vol.
7
, Oct. 1812, pp. 597 - 604, 661.
600
Cultural formation Bessie Rayner Parkes
BRP was born into an English, professional, well-known, liberal, Unitarian family.
Crawford, Anne, editor. The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women. Europa Publications, 1983.
Levine, Philippa. Feminist Lives in Victorian England: Private Roles and Public Commitment. Basil Blackwell, 1990.
16-17
Banks, Olive. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. New York University Press, 1985–2024, 2 vols.
Her mother was born in Pennsylvania, but had moved to England at the age of six.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan, 1941.
36
Cultural formation Ann Jebb
At this stage also the Jebbs changed their religion, and became Unitarian s. John Jebb, indeed, was one of those who were instrumental in opening the first Unitarian chapel, in London.
Meadley, George William. “Memoir of Mrs. Jebb”. The Monthly Repository, Vol.
7
, Oct. 1812, pp. 597 - 604, 661.
600
Cultural formation Lucie Duff Gordon
Presumably white, LDG grew up in a radical liberal, professional family of English descent. Both her parents were highly intellectual and prominent in political circles, and both were published authors. Her mother brought her up...
Cultural formation Anna Swanwick
She was born into a business family in that great and busy port, and brought up a Liberal and a Unitarian . In 1831 James Martineau became the Minister at the chapel in Paradise Street...
Cultural formation Bessie Rayner Parkes
BRP described herself as having been born in the very bosom of Puritan England, and fed daily upon the strict letter of the Scripture from aged lips which I regarded with profound reverence.
qtd. in
Leighton, Angela, and Margaret Reynolds, editors. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. Blackwell, 1995.
347
Her...
Cultural formation Mary Anne Jevons
Like her parents, MAJ became a committed Unitarian who attended chapel regularly.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cultural formation Lucie Duff Gordon
Despite her mother's Unitarian influence, LDG never entirely conformed to any denomination in her religious beliefs. Even at the age of fourteen she maintained her own views: my religion was that of the birds and...
Cultural formation Anna Swanwick
She remained a Unitarian all her life, but was open-minded enough to enjoy discussing Unitarianism on equal terms with Catholicism, Judaism, and other forms of religious worship
Bruce, Mary Louisa. Anna Swanwick, A Memoir and Recollections 1813-1899. T. F. Unwin, 1903.
155
with the eccentric Marquess of Bute (himself...
Cultural formation Amelia Opie
AO , who had left the Unitarian church in 1814 and taken the decision to convert to Quakerism, had her application to join the Society of Friends accepted.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxviii
Cultural formation Sarah Flower Adams
Her devout Unitarian upbringing manifested itself in her writing, most explicitly in her hymns.
Stephenson, Harold William. The Author of Nearer, My God, to Thee (Sarah Flower Adams). Lindsey Press, 1922.
17-20
However, at the age of twenty she faced a spiritual crisis,
Commire, Anne, and Deborah Klezmer, editors. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications, 1999–2002, 17 vols.
expressed in a letter written to her minister...

Timeline

1749: David Hartley published Observations on Man,...

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1749

David Hartley published Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duties, and his Expectations, which established a materialist theory of the human mind.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

1771: Political thinker Richard Price (who was...

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1771

Political thinker Richard Price (who was later a Unitarian ) published probably the best-known attack on enclosures, Observations on Reversionary Payments, which went through six editions.
Neeson, J. M. Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700-1820. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
24

17 April 1774: The inaugural service was held at the first...

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17 April 1774

The inaugural service was held at the first Unitarian chapel, in Essex Street, London.
Jebb, John. “Memoirs”. The Works, Theological, Medical, Political, and Miscellaneous, of John Jebb, M.D. F.R.S., edited by John Disney, T. Cadell, J. Johnson, and J. Stockdale; J. and J. Merrill, 1787, pp. 1: 1 - 227.
83
Webb, Robert Kiefer. “Miracles in English Unitarian Thought”. Enlightenment, Passion, Modernity: Historical Essays in European Thought and Culture, edited by Mark S. Micale and Robert L. Dietle, Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 113-30.
113

April 1792: Mobs attacked houses and mills owned by Unitarians...

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April 1792

Mobs attacked houses and mills owned by Unitarians in Nottingham; two months later, meeting-houses in Manchester were sacked, and, in November, mills in Belper.
Norton, Rictor. Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. Leicester University Press, 1999.
110

11 May 1792: Edmund Burke in his Speech on the Petition...

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11 May 1792

Edmund Burke in his Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians argued that Unitarians, who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, could not claim toleration like Catholics , Presbyterian s, Quakers , and others.
De Bruyn, Frans. “Anti-Semitism, Millenarianism, and Radical Dissent in Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in FranceEighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
34
, No. 4, 1 June 2001– 2024, pp. 577-00.
595

1796: Joseph Priestley published at Philadelphia...

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1796

Joseph Priestley published at PhiladelphiaUnitarianism Explained and Defended, in a Discourse Delivered in the Church of the Universalists, at Philadelphia.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

1813: An Act of Parliament conferred legal status...

National or international item

1813

An Act of Parliament conferred legal status on the Unitarians by absolving them of the official charge of blasphemy.
Norton, Rictor. Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. Leicester University Press, 1999.
67

October 1891: The Labour Church, an organization professing...

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October 1891

The Labour Church , an organization professing Christian Socialism, held its first service, in Manchester. Its founder, John Trevor , had been a Unitarian minister.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.
under Labour Church

29 September 1904: Gertrude von Petzold, a German Unitarian,...

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29 September 1904

Gertrude von Petzold , a German Unitarian , became the first woman to act as a minister in England since before the Victorian age.
Kaye, Elaine. “A Turning-point in the Ministry of Women: The Ordination of the First Woman to the Christian Ministry in England in September 1917”. Women in the Church, edited by William J. Sheils and Diana Wood, Basil Blackwell, 1990, pp. 505-12.
506
Gilley, Keith. “The ministry of women”. The Guardian, 25 Sept. 2004, p. 29.
29

17 September 1917: Constance Todd, later Constance Coltman,...

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17 September 1917

Constance Todd , later Constance Coltman, became the first woman to be ordained to the ministry (of the Congregational Church) in England.
Kaye, Elaine. “A Turning-point in the Ministry of Women: The Ordination of the First Woman to the Christian Ministry in England in September 1917”. Women in the Church, edited by William J. Sheils and Diana Wood, Basil Blackwell, 1990, pp. 505-12.
506, 509
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Another very early minister in the Congregational church was Hatty Baker

Texts

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