page_title: Newington Green Unitarian Church
section_title: Early 19th century: The Barbaulds
hierarchical_section_title: Newington Green Unitarian Church / Early 19th century: The Barbaulds
caption_attribution_description: The New River in Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, Hackney, London. This is the point at which the river goes underground to reappear south of St Paul's Road in Islington. 4 September 2005. Photographer: Fin Fahey.
context_page_description: Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. It was founded in 1708 by English Dissenters, a community of which had been gathering around Newington Green for at least half a century before that date. The church belongs to the umbrella organisation known as the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and has had an upturn in its fortunes since the turn of the millennium.
  Its most famous minister was Dr Richard Price, a political radical who is remembered for his role in the Revolution Controversy, a British debate about the French Revolution, but who also did pioneering work in finance and statistics. The most famous member of its congregation was Mary Wollstonecraft, who drew inspiration from Price's sermons in her work, both in arguing for the new French republic and in raising the issue of the rights of women.
  The building, which faces the north side of the green, was extended in 1860, and was listed in 1953.
context_section_description: In 1808, Rochemont Barbauld was appointed minister, first as the morning preacher. His wife, Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825), was a prolific writer, admired by Samuel Johnson and William Wordsworth.  She enjoyed a long friendship with Joseph Priestley and William Enfield, starting from their years together at the Warrington Academy in the 1760s, where her father John Aikin was tutor.  She wrote poems (including a tribute to Priestley), hymns, children's literature, and political and religious tracts. She was an abolitionist, addressing one of her works to William Wilberforce. In 1793 she contributed to the Pamphlet War, "Sins of the Government, Sins of the Nation". Two years later she wrote The Rights of Women, but it was not published until her death 30 years later.
  Rochemont eventually went violently insane, attacked his wife, and committed suicide by drowning himself in the New River that runs through Islington. Anna remained a member of the congregation until her death and is commemorated in the church with a plaque which praises her work for "the Cause of Humanity, Peace, and Justice, [and] of Civil and Religious Liberty".  Her brother Dr John Aikin lived nearby, and together they co-authored books such as Evenings at Home. As he had been a Unitarian minister in his youth, it is likely that he worshipped at NGUC, with his son Arthur, a prominent scientist, and his daughter Lucy, a biographer.  They lived in a house previously occupied by Adam Anderson, clerk to the South Sea Company.
caption: The New River in Clissold Park.
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