page_title: Bartholomew Booth
section_title: Woolton Academy
hierarchical_section_title: Bartholomew Booth / Woolton Academy
caption_attribution_description: Woolton Hall, Liverpool, c. 1781
context_page_description: Bartholomew Booth was a pioneer in American education. Oxford-educated, Booth was ordained as a priest in the Church of England before becoming a headmaster. He opened academies in Liverpool, then in Lancashire and Essex. He offered a wide curriculum, broadly following the educational philosophy of Benjamin Franklin, and was a curate for what became the congregation of Saint John's Church.
context_section_description: With the help of patrons, Booth in 1766 began his Woolton Academy. It was a boarding school located in Woolton Hall, outside Liverpool. Pupils there included Isaac Gascoyne and George Hibbert. The patrons were the widow Anne Bardsley (1732–1781) and her sister Mary Valens (1740–1810). They were daughters of the Liverpool merchant Joseph Valens. Initially involved as supporters of Booth's Liverpool school in 1765, they undertook housekeeping duties at the boarding school. Their money enabled Booth to purchase Woolton Hall, in 1771. Whitehead suggests that the Rev. Samuel Bardsley (1726–1756), curate at Flixton, may have been Anne's husband. 
  Booth took on as assistant master Peter Newby, who taught French and Latin, and was much influenced by Booth's broad-based curriculum. Woolton Academy continued to 1772, when Booth sold Woolton Hall. It went to Nicholas Ashton (1742–1833), from a Liverpool merchant family. 
  Booth with Newby set up a new school in High Beach, Essex. Two of the sons of Thomas Langton (1724–1794) of Kirkham, Lancashire made the move south as pupils. The masters parted in 1773, Booth moving to British America, and Newby setting up his own school, at Burton-in-Kendal.
caption: Woolton Hall, near Liverpool, 1781 watercolour after Robert Adam improvements[6]
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