Andrew Pritchard FRSE (14 December 1804 – 24 November 1882) was an English naturalist and natural history dealer who made significant improvements to microscopy and studied microscopic organisms.
He became a leading member of Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London, and worked to build a school there.
This latter book was enlarged and revised by John Ralfs and other botanists; Pritchard in turn condensed Ralfs's contribution on the diatomaceæ (diatoms, a type of phytoplankton), and wrote many books and articles on "natural history as seen through the microscope, on optical instruments, and on patents"[2] He issued the exsiccata work British Mosses.
[3] Pritchard held various Dissenting religious views over his lifetime, holding that science and religion were one.
[5] In the end, he joined a Unitarian congregation, because religious freedom and self-improvement were the watchwords of the movement, which still struggled against civil disabilities.
Money aside, Pritchard would not have been able to attend an English university as a young man, for example, because the only two, Oxford and Cambridge, restricted entry to members of the Church of England.
"[6] Pritchard joined the congregation of Newington Green Unitarian Church, an establishment long connected with scientific enquiry (Joseph Priestley), education (Mary Wollstonecraft), and political dissent (Richard Price).