A portrait of Johann Reinhold Forster with his son George. Johann was a tutor at the Academy and a member of the local lodge in Warrington. His son George also became a Freemason.

In May 2017 I presented a paper on the Warrington Academy and Freemasonry, to Quatuor Coronati Lodge at Grand Lodge in London, and the paper was subsequently published in the lodge’s Transactions Ars Quatuor Coronatorum Vol.130 (2017). I have recently uploaded the paper on the academia.edu site and it is available for free download on the link here.

The Warrington Academy was a progressive educational centre located in the market town of Warrington, Lancashire, during the later half of the eighteenth century, the academy having a number of tutors that were Freemasons. The local lodge in Warrington certainly supported local education and local charity at the time, and the paper explores these aspects, looking at how certain Freemasons helped to leave a legacy of civic philanthropy on a wider social scale.

I hope you enjoy the paper.

The first Academy building, which still exists in Warrington.