William Allen (Quaker) - Philanthropic and Educational Work

Philanthropic and Educational Work

William Allen's philanthropic work was closely allied to his religious revivalist beliefs, and began at an early age. As the eighteenth century drew to a close, his concerns about the effects of a local famine, led to him opening a 'soup society'. Later his interest in agricultural experiments was also aimed improving the nutrition and diet of ordinary people susceptible to food shortages. Using only small plots, he carried out trials at Lordship Lane in Stoke Newington, and later put into practice some of his findings at the model agricultural settlement of Lindfield that he helped establish.

His self-sufficient settlement was described in detail in his pamphlet "Colonies at Home", where he stated "instead of encouraging emigration at enormous expense per head let the money be applied to the establishment of Colonies at Home and the increase of our national strength". To the people of the time (1820s) the known colonies were in the Americas so the whole area became known as "America". This identity remains in the local street names and people's memories of the cottages in what is now America Lane.

William Allen's other philanthropic interest was education. He became greatly influenced by the ideas of Joseph Lancaster, who invented the monitorial system that bears his name. It was a cheap way of educating large numbers, where one teacher supervises several senior pupils who in turn instruct many junior ones. In 1808 Allen, Joseph Fox and Samuel Whitbread co-founded the Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor, later the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion. In 1810 William Allen became treasurer of the Society, whose aim was to open progressive schools in England and abroad. It was renamed the British and Foreign School Society in 1814, when Allen was again its treasurer.

In 1824 Allen founded the Newington Academy for Girls, also known as the Newington College for Girls, a Quaker school. Quaker views on women had from the beginning tended towards equality, with women allowed to minister, but still, at the time, girls' educational opportunities were limited. His school offered a wide range of subjects "on a plan in degree differing from any hitherto adopted", according to the prospectus. Here Allen was able to ensure that the new sciences were covered (he taught astronomy, physics, and chemistry himself), as well as many languages. The school was situated at Fleetwood House and made much use of Abney Park, the grounds in which it sat. It was also innovative in commissioning the world's first school bus, designed by George Shillibeer, to transport the pupils to Gracechurch Street meeting house on Sundays. The school was the subject of a poem by Joseph Pease, a railway pioneer who later became the first Quaker MP.

In 1811 William Allen, with the support of James Mill, started a publication entitled the Philanthropist. It published articles by Mill and by Jeremy Bentham. In 1816 he became a founding member of the Peace Society, a political development from his long-standing Quaker pacificism. From 1818-1820 he toured Europe with the Quaker evangelist Stephen Grellet.