Joseph Lancaster

Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838) was born in Southwark, the son of a shopkeeper. In his early teens he became convinced he should serve as a missionary in Jamaica, and removed to Bristol, but was unable to afford the fare to Jamaica. He remained for a time in Bristol and eventually joined the Society of Friends. He returned to London in 1798 and opened a small school in Southwark that was to be free of charge, with payment strictly optional. The school became quite popular, but Lancaster found it difficult to employ teachers because of the unpredictability of funds. He then adopted the monitorial system used by another educator, Andrew Bell, in Madras, India, which eased his problem considerably. Lancaster developed an elaborate system of punishments designed to encourage the students through means of shame, but without corporal punishment. Within a few years Lancaster’s school had over 1000 pupils and began to receive national attention and financial support. In 1808, due to increasing debts, Joseph Fox, a dentist and member of the Baptist congregation at Carter Lane in Southwark, and William Allen, a Quaker, along with Samuel Whitbread, M.P., took over the management of the school. They proceeded to form the Royal Lancastrian Society, whose aim was to create similar non-sectarian schools throughout England, none of which were to be controlled by the Church of England. By 1810, fifty schools had been formed, educating over 14,000 pupils. In 1816 a disagreement between Lancaster and his trustees led to a separation and the formation of a separate school by Lancaster in Tooting. The school failed and Lancaster, now bankrupt, emigrated to America, where he continued to form new schools, some as far away as Canada and Venezuela, all of which were unsuccessful. He died in New York in 1838. Among his writings are Improvements in Education, as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community (1803), Instructions for Forming and Conducting a Society for the Education of the Children of the Labouring Classes of the People, According to the General Principles of the Lancastrian or British Plan (1810), as well as The British System of Education Being a Complete Epitome of the Improvements and Inventions Practiced by Joseph Lancaster . . . (1810). See Carl F. Kaestle, Joseph Lancaster and the Monitorial School Movement; A Documentary History (New York: Teachers College Press, 1973).