MS. prospectus by F. A. Cox describing the curriculum and term schedule for his school at Hackney, January 1827.

         The Revd F. A. Cox LL.D. proposes to take 3 or 4 young gentlemen into his house, for the purpose of extending their education beyond the general plan & period of Boarding-School instruction. The object will be to occupy advantageously the interval, or any portion of the interval between 14 or 15 & 20 years of age; not merely by accumulating knowledge, but by discovering & directing the bias & attitude of the mind, & forming the intellectual habits. 

         In addition to the Roman & Greek languages & literature, Mathematics & Science, Dr Cox intends to pay particular attention to English Composition  & to general reading, so as to form the taste, & point out the best methods of cultivating the mind in future. With this end in view courses in reading will be prescribed, & the merits & demerits of authors explained in connexion with the great subjects of History, Civil & Ecclesiastical, Moral Philosophy & Theology. Hebrew & Biblical Criticism will be incorporated into the system of instruction whenever it may appear practicable or desirable to the student.

         Dr Cox proposes commencing with this plan on Tuesday July 24th 1827. The terms, including every requisite accommodation & supply, excepting only Washing & Class Books will be 100 Guineas per annum. The gentlemen will have the use of a good library.

         Further details may be the subject of conversation & correspondence.

Hackney     Jany 1827

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 206 (annotated version); Eng. MS. 375, fol. 473d, John Rylands University Library of Manchester.