It is likely that I was introduced to the work of Philip Doddridge several years before I encountered that of any other of the subjects of this book, for in the village chapel in which I was christened, almost all baptismal services began with the singing of Doddridge's hymn ‘See Israel's gentle shepherd stand’. Indeed, it is for his hymns that Doddridge is now best remembered. Like Pepys, Doddridge was no mathematician, yet he was one of the leaders in an educational movement that did much to secure a place for mathematics in the curriculum at secondary and tertiary level. Moreover, his own mathematical education is well documented and it is for these reasons that he has been selected to represent his period and the dissenting academies with which his name is so closely associated.

THE PURITAN REVOLUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH

In the time of the Commonwealth increased emphasis came to be placed on education. The forces of conservatism were, for the time being, driven underground and advancement came to depend more on merit than on social class. In such a climate, established doctrines and ways were more readily challenged. In particular, the curricula of the grammar schools and universities were attacked as lacking social utility and relevance, and demands were made for increased mathematical and scientific studies (1). Attempts were also made to break the monopoly of Oxford and Cambridge in the field of university education in England.