56-463: Abraham Rees (1743 – 9 June 1825) was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopædia (in 45 volumes). He was the second son of Esther, daughter of Abraham Penry, and her husband Lewis Rees, and was born in Llanbrynmair , Montgomeryshire . Lewis Rees (1710-1800) was independent minister at Llanbrynmair (1734–1759) and Mynyddbach , Glamorganshire (1759–1800). Rees
112-763: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote
168-470: A century and a half. Culturally, in England and Wales , discrimination against Nonconformists endured even longer. Presbyterians , Congregationalists , Baptists , Calvinists , other "reformed" groups and less organised sects were identified as Nonconformists at the time of the 1662 Act of Uniformity. Following the act, other groups, including Methodists , Unitarians , Quakers , Plymouth Brethren , and
224-538: A cyclopædist began as an improver of the Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers , originally published in 1728, in 2 volumes. This was re-edited by Rees in 1778; and, with the incorporation of a supplement and much new matter, was issued by him in 1781–6, in 4 volumes; reprinted 1788–91. In recognition of his labour he was elected in 1786 a Fellow of the Royal Society , and subsequently of the Linnean Society and
280-559: A great part of the more active members of society, who have the most intercourse with the people have the most influence over them, are Protestant Dissenters. These are manufacturers, merchants and substantial tradesman, or persons who are in the enjoyment of a competency realised by trade, commerce and manufacturers, gentlemen of the professions of law and physic, and agriculturalists, of that class particularly who live upon their own freehold. The virtues of temperance, frugality, prudence and integrity promoted by religious Nonconformity...assist
336-564: A major role in English politics. In a political context, historians distinguish between two categories of Dissenters, in addition to the evangelical element in the Church of England. "Old Dissenters", dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, included Baptists , Congregationalists , Quakers , Unitarians , and Presbyterians outside Scotland. "New Dissenters" emerged in the 18th century and were mainly Methodists. The " Nonconformist conscience "
392-463: A non- Anglican church or a non-Christian religion. More broadly, any person who advocated religious liberty was typically called out as Nonconformist. The strict religious tests embodied in the laws of the Clarendon Code and other penal laws excluded a substantial section of English society from public affairs and benefits, including certification of university degrees, for well more than
448-489: A registrar was present. Also in 1836, civil registration of births, deaths and marriages was taken from the hands of local parish officials and given to local government registrars. Burial of the dead was a more troubling problem, for urban chapels rarely had graveyards, and sought to use the traditional graveyards controlled by the established church. The Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 finally allowed this. Oxford University required students seeking admission to submit to
504-632: A series of disabilities on Nonconformists that prevented them from holding most public offices, that required them to pay local taxes to the Anglican church, be married by Anglican ministers, and be denied attendance at Oxford or degrees at Cambridge. Dissenters demanded removal of political and civil disabilities that applied to them (especially those in the Test and Corporation Acts). The Anglican establishment strongly resisted until 1828. The Test Act 1673 made it illegal for anyone not receiving communion in
560-737: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and
616-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which
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#1732782464635672-725: Is paid to English biography; the botanical articles were generally contributed by Sir James Edward Smith and the music articles by Charles Burney . Congratulated, on the completion of his task, by his friend, John Evans (1767–1827) , Rees wrote in reply: 'I thank you, but I feel more grateful that I have been spared to publish my four volumes of sermons.' The Cyclopædia; ... is commonly known as Rees's Cyclopædia . Besides single sermons (1770–1813), Rees published 'Practical Sermons,' 1809, 2 vols.; 2nd ed. 1812, with two additional volumes, 1821. In conjunction with Kippis, Thomas Jervis , and Thomas Morgan, LLD, he brought out 'A Collection of Hymns and Psalms,' &c., 1795, (the ninth edition, 1823,
728-558: Is revised by Rees and Jervis). This collection, generally known as Kippis's, was the first attempt to supply, for general use among liberal dissenters, a hymnal to take the place of Isaac Watts 's. It was supplemented in 1807, and again in 1852. Nonconformist (Protestantism) Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the established church in England, and in Wales until 1914,
784-580: Is used in a broader sense to refer to Christians who are not communicants of a majority national church , such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden . The Act of Uniformity 1662 required churchmen to use all rites and ceremonies as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer . It also required episcopal ordination of all ministers of the Church of England—a pronouncement most odious to the Puritans ,
840-551: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1813. When he presented the address of the body of ministers of the 'three denominations' (Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists) in 1820 on the accession of George IV, it was noted that, as a student, he had attended the similar deputation to George III sixty years before. According to Alexander Gordon (Unitarian) in the Dictionary of National Biography , his theology
896-547: The American Philosophical Society . He then projected a more comprehensive publication. The first part of The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature was issued on 2 January 1802, and the work was completed in forty-five volumes, including six volumes of plates, in August 1820. The parts were issued at irregular intervals, two parts constituting a volume. Great attention
952-719: The Church of England . Use of the term Nonconformist in England and Wales was precipitated after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, when the Act of Uniformity 1662 renewed opposition to reforms within the established church. By the late 19th century the term specifically included other Reformed Christians ( Presbyterians and Congregationalists ), plus the Baptists , Brethren , Methodists , and Quakers . In Ireland,
1008-494: The English Moravians were officially labelled as Nonconformists as they became organised. The term dissenter later came into particular use after the Act of Toleration 1689 , which exempted those Nonconformists who had taken oaths of allegiance from being penalised for certain acts, such as for non-attendance at Church of England services. A census of religion in 1851 revealed Nonconformists made up about half
1064-682: The Irish Catholics in an otherwise unlikely alliance. The Nonconformist conscience was also repeatedly called upon by Gladstone for support for his moralistic foreign policy. In election after election, Protestant ministers rallied their congregations to the Liberal ticket. (In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales.) Many of
1120-626: The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. Cambridge University required that for a diploma. The two ancient universities opposed giving a charter to the new London University in the 1830s, because it had no such restriction. London University, nevertheless, was established in 1836, and by the 1850s Oxford dropped its restrictions. In 1871 Gladstone sponsored legislation that provided full access to degrees and fellowships. The Scottish universities never had restrictions. Since 1660, Dissenters, later Nonconformists, have played
1176-1047: The Uniting Church in Sweden , was formed by merging the Baptist Union of Sweden , the United Methodist Church , and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden . Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of
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#17327824646351232-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to
1288-500: The 20th century, until only pockets of nonconformist religiosity remained in England. Nonconformity in Wales can be traced to the Welsh Methodist revival ; Wales effectively had become a Nonconformist country by the mid-19th century; nonconformist chapel attendance significantly outnumbered Anglican church attendance. They were based in the fast-growing upwardly mobile urban middle class. The influence of Nonconformism in
1344-475: The Church of England to hold office under the crown. The Corporation Act 1661 did likewise for offices in municipal government . Although the Test and Corporation Acts remained on the statute-book, in practice they were not enforced against Protestant nonconformists due to the passage of various Indemnity Acts , in particular the Indemnity Act 1727 , which relieved Nonconformists from the requirements in
1400-672: The Nonconformists elected to Parliament were Liberals. Relatively few MPs were Dissenters. However the Dissenters were major voting bloc in many areas, such as the East Midlands. They were very well organised and highly motivated and largely won over the Whigs and Liberals to their cause. Gladstone brought the majority of Dissenters around to support for Home Rule for Ireland , putting the dissenting Protestants in league with
1456-629: The Old group supported mostly Whigs and Liberals in politics, while the New, like most Anglicans, generally supported Conservatives . By the late 19th century, the New Dissenters had mostly switched to the Liberal Party. The result was a merging of the two groups, strengthening their great weight as a political pressure group. After the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in 1828 , all
1512-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of
1568-1400: The Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence, is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of
1624-663: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to
1680-707: The Test Act 1673 and the Corporation Act 1661 that public office holders must have taken the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in an Anglican church. In 1732, Nonconformists in the City of London created an association, the Dissenting Deputies to secure repeal of the Test and Corporation acts. The Deputies became a sophisticated pressure group, and worked with liberal Whigs to achieve repeal in 1828. It
1736-612: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use
Abraham Rees - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-756: The comparable term until the Church of Ireland 's disestablishment in 1869 was "Dissenter" (the term earlier used in England), commonly referring to Irish Presbyterians who dissented from the approved Anglican communion. English Dissenters such as the Puritans who violated the Act of Uniformity 1558 – typically by practising radical, sometimes separatist , dissent – were retrospectively labelled as Nonconformists. By law and social custom, Nonconformists were restricted from many spheres of public life – not least, from access to public office, civil service careers, or degrees at university – and were referred to as suffering from civil disabilities . In England and Wales in
1848-560: The early part of the 20th century, boosted by the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival , led to the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales in 1920 and the formation of the Church in Wales . In other countries, the term Nonconformist is used in a broader sense to refer to Christians who are not communicants of a majority national church , such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden . The largest Nonconformist church in Sweden,
1904-622: The faction of the church which had come to dominance during the English Civil War and the Interregnum . Consequently, nearly 2,000 clergymen were "ejected" from the established church for refusing to comply with the provisions of the act, an event referred to as the Great Ejection . The Great Ejection created an abiding public consciousness of nonconformity. Thereafter, a Nonconformist was any English subject belonging to
1960-528: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use
2016-529: The first MPs elected for the Labour Party in the 1900s were also nonconformists. Nonconformists were angered by the Education Act 1902 , which provided for the support of denominational schools from taxes. The elected local school boards that they largely controlled were abolished and replaced by county-level local education authorities that were usually controlled by Anglicans. Worst of all
2072-540: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from
2128-500: The hated Anglican schools would now receive funding from local taxes that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes. John Clifford formed the National Passive Resistance Committee . By 1904 over 37,000 summonses for unpaid school taxes were issued, with thousands having their property seized and 80 protesters going to prison. It operated for another decade but had no impact on
2184-486: The household, religion, and moral behaviour. Religiosity was in the female sphere, and the Nonconformist churches offered new roles that women eagerly entered. They taught Sunday school , visited the poor and sick, distributed tracts, engaged in fundraising, supported missionaries, led Methodist class meetings , prayed with other women, and a few were allowed to preach to mixed audiences. Parliament had imposed
2240-466: The late 19th century the new terms " free church " and "Free churchman" (or "Free church person") started to replace "Nonconformist" or "Dissenter". One influential Nonconformist minister was Matthew Henry , who beginning in 1710 published his multi-volume biblical commentary that is still used and available in the 21st century. Isaac Watts is an equally recognised Nonconformist minister whose hymns are still sung by Christians worldwide. The term
2296-613: The linkage between the Nonconformists and Liberal Party was weakening, as secularisation reduced the strength of Dissent in English political life. Today, Protestant churches independent of the Anglican Church of England or the Presbyterian Church of Scotland are often called " free churches ", meaning they are free from state control. This term is used interchangeably with "Nonconformist". The steady pace of secularisation picked up faster and faster during
Abraham Rees - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-521: The number of people who attended church services on Sundays. In the larger manufacturing areas, Nonconformists clearly outnumbered members of the Church of England. Nonconformists in the 18th and 19th century claimed a devotion to hard work, temperance, frugality, and upward mobility, with which historians today largely agree. A major Unitarian magazine, the Christian Monthly Repository asserted in 1827: Throughout England
2408-830: The pall being borne by six ministers of the 'three denominations.' A funeral oration was delivered by Thomas Rees , and the funeral sermon, on 19 June, by Robert Aspland . Rees survived his wife and all his children, but left several grandchildren. His son, Nathaniel Penry Rees, died 8 July 1802, on a voyage from Bengal to St Helena. His only daughter Joanna Rees born 17 April 1769 in Hoxton Town, Shoreditch married John Jones . Abraham married on 3 July 1764 to Joanna Goldney. Children were: Charles Goldney Rees Nathaniel Penry Rees Joanna Rees Philip Lewis Rees, born 12 Oct 1772 in Hoxton Town, died 25 Feb 1798, buried in Dissenting Chapel Yard. Rivington, Lancs Rees's work as
2464-612: The pastorate of the Old Jewry congregation in 1783, and retained this charge till his death, being both morning and afternoon preacher (unusual then, among London presbyterians); he shared also (from 1773) a Sunday-evening lecture at Salters' Hall, and was one of the Tuesday-morning lecturers at Salters' Hall till 1795. A new meeting-house, of octagon form, was erected for him in Jewin Street and opened 10 December 1809. He
2520-514: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II
2576-552: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates
2632-571: The school system. The education issue played a major role in the Liberal victory in the 1906 general election , as Dissenter Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. After 1906, a Liberal attempt to modify the law was blocked by the Conservative -dominated House of Lords ; after 1911 when the Lords had been stripped of its veto over legislation, the issue was no longer of high enough priority to produce Liberal action. By 1914
2688-412: The temporal prosperity of these descriptions of persons, as they tend also to lift others to the same rank in society. The emerging middle-class norm was for women to be excluded from the public sphere—the domain of politics, paid work, commerce and public speaking. Instead, it was considered that women should dominate in the realm of domestic life, focused on care of the family, the husband, the children,
2744-439: Was a major achievement for an outside group, but the Dissenters were not finished. Next on the agenda was the matter of church rates , which were local taxes at the parish level for the support of the parish church building in England and Wales. Only buildings of the established church received the tax money. Civil disobedience was attempted but was met with seizure of personal property and even imprisonment. The compulsory factor
2800-486: Was educated for the ministry at Coward's academy in Wellclose Square , near London, under David Jennings , entering in 1759. In 1762 he was appointed assistant tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy; on the move of the academy to Hoxton after Jennings's death in 1762 he became resident tutor, a position which he held till 1785, his colleagues being Andrew Kippis and Samuel Morton Savage ; subsequently he
2856-481: Was elected trustee of Dr Daniel Williams 's foundations in 1774, and secretary of the presbyterian board in 1778, and held both offices till his death. On 31 January 1775 he received the degree of DD from the University of Edinburgh . He made a triennial visit to Wales as examiner of Carmarthen Academy . In 1806 he was appointed distributor of the English regium donum . He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of
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#17327824646352912-421: Was finally abolished in 1868 by William Ewart Gladstone , and payment was made voluntary. While Gladstone was a moralistic evangelical inside the Church of England, he had strong support in the Nonconformist community. The marriage question was settled by Marriage Act 1836 which allowed local government registrars to handle marriages. Nonconformist ministers in their own chapels were allowed to marry couples if
2968-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership
3024-598: Was of a mediating and transitional character; his doctrines had an evangelical flavour, though essentially of an Arian type, and inclining to those of Richard Price , and he held the tenet of a universal restoration. He was the last of the London dissenting ministers who officiated in a wig. He died at his residence in Artillery Place, Finsbury , on 9 June 1825, and was buried on 18 June in Bunhill Fields,
3080-518: Was their moral sensibility which they tried to implement in British politics. The "Nonconformist conscience" of the Old group emphasised religious freedom and equality, pursuit of justice, and opposition to discrimination, compulsion, and coercion. The New Dissenters (and also the Anglican evangelicals) stressed personal morality issues, including sexuality, family values, and temperance . Both factions were politically active, but until mid-19th century
3136-511: Was tutor in Hebrew and mathematics in the New College at Hackney (1786–96). His first ministerial engagement was in the independent congregation at Clapham , where he preached once a fortnight, as assistant to Philip Furneaux . In 1768 he became assistant to Henry Read (1686–1774) in the presbyterian congregation at St Thomas's, Southwark , and succeeded him as pastor in 1774. He moved to
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