Engraving c. 1820 of the former Newcome's School in Hackney
Newcome's School was a boys' school in Hackney, then to the east of London, founded in the early 18th century. A number of prominent Whig families sent their sons there. The school closed in 1815, and the buildings were gutted in 1820. In 1825 the London Orphan Asylum opened on the site. Today the Clapton Girls' Academy is located here.
History
Newcome's school was established in the early 18th century. During the 18th century and early 19th century, Hackney was home to schools of all kinds, including a number of significant dissenting academies. It was considered a healthy area, close to London and with easy access in all weathers via the Old North Road.
Many prominent Whig families sent their sons to the school, resulting in a large number of Members of Parliament having received their education there. Dr. Henry Newcome, who gave the school its name, was noted for Whig political principles, and the school stayed in the family for three generations, to 1803. The family descended from Henry Newcome, a prominent nonconformist minister in Manchester. His third son Peter was an Anglican priest, and the father of the Henry Newcome who gave the school its name.
The school closed in 1815, and the building was knocked down in 1820. In 1825 the London Orphan Asylum opened on the site. The History of Parliament (1820–1832) comments that, even after its closure, the school could count nine Members of Parliament educated there in the period. It sent 42 pupils to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Newcome's School was noted for a series of dramatic productions. In some case a prologue or epilogue was written specially. The school was one of a group that acted as preparatory schools to Westminster School; the dramatic tradition imitated Westminster's, with the difference that plays were in English (rather than Latin). One of the contributors of prologues was David Garrick. The custom of giving a play every three years was also taken over from the Elizabethan statutes of Westminster School. It ended about 1800.:70
Other plays known to have been given by the performance of Andria were Shakespeare's King John and Macbeth.:73
Staff
James Greenwood was usher (assistant head teacher) under Benjamin Morland, then leaving to set up his own academy. George Budd taught art there. William Coleridge, elder brother of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, taught at the school in the 1780s.
Henry Newcome, LL.D. (baptised 1689, died 1756). He was educated at St Paul's School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Newcome's doctoral degree is not placed by Venn, but he certainly used it and was known as "Dr. Newcome". He married Morland's daughter Lydia in 1714, and took over the school. His second wife was Anne Yalden.
↑Baker, T. F. T., ed. (1995). "Hackney: Clapton". A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
123Motter, T. H. Vail (March 1944). "Garrick and the Private Theatres: With a List of Amateur Performances in the Eighteenth Century". ELH. 11 (1). Johns Hopkins University Press: 63–75. doi:10.2307/2871745. JSTOR2871745.
12Blanchard, Rae (September 1932). "A Prologue and an Epilogue for Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane by Richard Steele". PMLA. 47 (3). Modern Language Association: 772–776. doi:10.2307/457953. JSTOR457953. S2CID163403157.
↑Robinson, Eric (1996). "John Clare (1793–1864) and James Plumptre (1771–1832), "A Methodistical Parson"". Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society. 11 (1): 59–88. JSTOR41154856.
↑King, W. D. (May 1997). ""Shadow of a Mesmeriser": The Female Body on the "Dark" Stage". Theatre Journal. 49 (2). Johns Hopkins University Press: 189–206. doi:10.1353/tj.1997.0039. JSTOR3208681. S2CID192178442.
12Bradbury, Oliver; Penny, Nicholas (August 2002). "The Picture Collecting of Lord Northwick: Part I". The Burlington Magazine. 144 (1193): 485–496. JSTOR889635.
↑Miller, Hortense S. (August 1970). "The Herbarium of Aylmer Bourke Lambert: Notes on Its Acquisition, Dispersal, and Present Whereabouts". Taxon. 19 (4). International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT): 489–553. doi:10.2307/1218947. JSTOR1218947.
↑Brydon, G. MacLaren (October 1943). "English Education of Thomas Nelson, Jr., of Yorktown". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 51 (4). Virginia Historical Society: 347–350. JSTOR4245255.