Trevecca College, founded by Lady Huntingdon in 1768, was one of the first institutions to be concerned exclusively with training for Christian ministry; it was significant both because of the influence that its achievements (and shortcomings) had upon later forms of ministerial education, and for the impact on evangelical and other congregations of the more than two hundred students who attended Trevecca in the twenty-three years of its existence. The chapter discusses the origins of the college, the initial plans for its curriculum and staffing, and the backgrounds and recruitment of the students. It describes the often haphazard nature of the educational regime at Trevecca (including the conflicting demands of study and preaching); the college’s involvement in foreign missions; its theology; and the diverse sources of authority and influence to which the students were subject. The successor to Trevecca opened at Cheshunt in 1792; its ground rules (particularly clearly defined courses of study, and strict limits on outside preaching) showed that some of the lessons of Trevecca had been learned.
Keywords: clerical education, Dissenting academies, foreign missions, itinerant preaching, Orphan-House, Savannah, St Edmund Hall expulsions