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 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...
Cultural formation Hesba Stretton
As an adult HS abandoned her mother 's strict Methodism and became an incurable sermon-taster. She favoured several denominations at the extreme of Protestantism. During the twelve-year period recorded in her Log Books only three...
Cultural formation Alice Dixon Le Plongeon
Spiritualists like ADLP 's uncle Jacob Dixon believed that it was possible to contact the dead through mediums. Her many experiences with séances throughout her life convinced her that this was true, including one in...
Cultural formation T. S. Eliot
His family were New Englanders for generations back on both sides, and were rich in connections with men of letters. His paternal grandfather was a Unitarian and an academic.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cultural formation Lucy Toulmin Smith
LTS 's family had a long history of involvement in the UnitarianChurch . Her great-great-grandfather, Joshua Toulmin , was a significant figure in the formation of the English Unitarian Church as a distinct denomination, and...
Cultural formation Amelia Opie
She came from a cultured, financially comfortable middle-class but Unitarian English family. Her class status meant that even after she converted from Dissent to Quakerism ,
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxviii
her attitudes remained worldly in comparison with those...
Cultural formation Edna Lyall
Her family had been Roman Catholic back in 1605, at the height of Catholic unrest and persecution of Catholics in England.
Escreet, J. M. The Life of Edna Lyall. Longmans, Green and Co., 1904.
3
EL , however, came from a liberal Unitarian background: her father (to whom...
Cultural formation Mary Sewell
Both of MS 's parents were members of the Society of Friends , as were her husband's family. She remained a Friend, or Quaker, until 1835, when she joined the Church of England after flirting...
Cultural formation Eva Gore-Booth
EGB came from a Protestant family but broke with that tradition in favour of many other spiritual pursuits. Biographer Gifford Lewis writes: even before her teens she had become, in Christian terms, godless and her...
Cultural formation Antoinette Brown Blackwell
In 1878 she returned to organized religion, joining a Unitarian Fellowship. Elizabeth Cazden believes that ABB was drawn to the Unitarian church because it envisioned a benevolent God and defended human freedom and moral reasoning.
Cazden, Elizabeth. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Feminist Press, 1983.
190

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– 2025, 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...

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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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