King's Head Society


The King's Head Society was an 18th-century organisation funding dissenting academies in England.
The King's Head Society was a group of laymen named after the pub behind the Royal Exchange at which they met. From 1730 they worked to promote Calvinism, by sponsoring young male scholars to attend dissenting academies. There nonconformists could learn the necessary "grammarian," or classical education, which was a pre-requisite for the four-year "academical" course of the Congregational Board. A classical education included the demanding and lengthy training period required for learning to read Greek and Latin texts in their original form.
A secret society and discussion club at Homerton College, Cambridge is named after the Society.
The King's Head Society Academies included: