[1] It was located in Warrington (then part of Lancashire, now within Cheshire), a town about half-way between the rapidly industrialising Manchester and the burgeoning Atlantic port of Liverpool.

[2] It was called "the cradle of Unitarianism" by Arthur Aikin Brodribb writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, who went on to say that it "formed during the twenty-nine years of its existence the centre of the liberal politics and the literary taste of the county of Lancashire".

[3] It was not, however, formally constituted until June 1757, when funds had been raised by John Seddon of Warrington, associated with the Octagon Chapel, Liverpool.

Among the other tutors who at some point joined the staff of the academy were Anna Barbauld (née Aikin), Johann Reinhold Forster, William Enfield, George Walker, Nicholas Clayton, and Gilbert Wakefield.

The disciplinary issues, coupled with unsettled debates over the principles of education, had led to a loss of confidence from the direction of the financial backers.