London, England/london3-510
Previous | Home | NextIn the historical literature, a well-kept secret is Newcome's Academy, which existed in Hackney 1685-1820, and which lay only 150 meters northwest of Priestley's Academy. Newcome's Academy is important because Henry Cavendish, the discoverer of hydrogen in 1766 {LINK: London2E-090}, trained here 1742-1749 before departing for Cambridge. Historians of British academic institutions have remarked on the paucity of information regarding Newcome's Academy in spite of its importance and its impressively long life of 135 years (note that it is not shown on the 1750 layout shown above). It has been remarked that 60 members of the House of Commons were "old boys" of the school at the end of the 1700s. The culture of this school was in stark contrast to the Dissenters schools; Newcome's Academy trained boys in the typical British tradition and became students of Oxford, Cambridge, or military institutions. The subjects taught were English, Latin, Greek, French, history, mathematics and sciences, vocational army or navy, dancing, drawing, musical and physical training; excursions for natural history, botany, sports (football and cricket), and an emphasis on theatrical peformances -- the school was renown for its presentations of Shakespearean plays. Adding to the history of the site, the building, built in the 1630s, was previously used a a girls' boarding school before being taken over and passing through three generations of the Newcome family. This print by "R. Reeve" is of the back part of the school showing the boys playing cricket.
