io 'Literary and Philosophical Society. 



Rector Academiae, kept up a constant intercourse with both 

 the tutors and the students, with the elder of whom he 

 was very familiar, and was greatly beloved by them. The 

 trustees also were perfectly satisfied with the general con- 

 duct of the institution, and, in the year 1762, were encou- 

 raged to build in a more eligible situation a common hall 

 and library, on a very handsome scale, together with two 

 good houses for Dr. Priestley and Mr. Holt, Dr. Aikin being 

 accommodated with a third house in the neighbourhood.' 

 Alluding to Priestley it is said : ' But notwithstanding these 

 promising appearances, the prospects of the tutors were in 

 several respects by no means promising. The subscriptions 

 of distant contributors gradually fell ofT, and threatened 

 a defalcation of the annual salaries ; and, the terms which 

 had been fixed for the board of students being unreason- 

 ably low (fifteen pounds a year), there was little room for 

 a young tutor, with a lately married delicate wife and grow- 

 ing family, to flatter himself that he should be able to make 

 provision for them. Perhaps his apprehensions of a failure 

 of the academy were more readily indulged than they 

 otherwise would have been, on account of Mrs. Priestley's 

 ill health, and the wish to make trial of a change of air ; but 

 it is certain that it was, in other respects, with great regret 

 that he determined to separate from colleagues with whom 

 he had lived so cordially and to quit a situation which was 

 in every respect agreeable to him, and which had now in a 

 manner ceased to be laborious. To the great disappoint- 

 ment, however, and mortification of the trustees, he accepted 

 an invitation to become the minister of the congregation at 

 Mill-Hill Chapel, in Leeds, whither he removed in 1767.' 

 The rest of his active and eventful life forms no part of the 

 history of our society or ancestry. 



