The Rathmel Academy has the honour of being the first nonconformist college.

Today there are many of them with many hundreds of students but Rathmel was the first and Richard Frankland was the pioneer. He conceived the idea and showed the way. Nowadays, each denomination has its own institutions in which young men or women are trained and equipped for ministerial work. For example, the Salvation Army carries out schemes for the more efficient training of Officers .

Frankland was born Nov 1st 1630 at Rathmell, a small village on the west bank of the R. Ribble three miles south of Settle.

At the age of 10 he started as a pupil of Giggleswick Grammar School at a time when the English Civil War was being fought. In 1648 he was admitted to Christ College Oxford which had strong Puritan traditions. After receiving his degree he was ordained as a Presbyterian Minister. Cromwell had declared that in order to man parishes with "Good men who could preach well", any man upon whose head a Bishops hand had not fallen, could be vicar of a parish church irrespective of whatever ecclesiastical label he may wear. This system worked well for a few years with little persecution.

The Puritans were protestants who were dissatisfied with elements of Catholicism and wanted a purer expression of their religion, and government by their Church Elders. Oppressed by James I and Charles I the Civil war gave them temporary pre-eminence but the movement fragmented into sects.

In 1660 Charles II came to the throne. The Commonwealth came to an end and with it the former ecclesiastical arrangements. The Universities were closed to nonconformists and prominent men were marked for attack - one of these being Frankland. In 1665 The "Five Mile Act" was passed forbidding any clergyman or school master from coming within five miles of a city or town unless he declared that he would not at any time endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state.. He retired to his estate where he worked out his educational plans for a trained ministry. In 1669/70 he founded the Rathmell School - a private academy where Puritan sympathisers could send their sons.

In the first four years the academy had 15 students. Five of these studied divinity the rest studying for the medical and legal professions. Two of these students were Samuel Yates of Warrington and Timothy Jollie of Atherton.

Studies included Logic, Metaphysics, Somatology (science of the human frame), Pneumatology (doctrine of the Holy Spirit), Natural Philosophy, Chronology and Divinity. All lectures were in Latin which was the language used at the school.

In May 1672, nonconformists were taunted by Charles II "Declaration of Indulgence" supposedly giving rights of meeting and freedom of speech. Many doubted its legality and claimed liberty as a right. Parliament in 1673 indeed pronounced it illegal.

Frankland suffered from local opposition from clergy who could not understand his principles and were keen to maintain their own livings. In 1674 he moved to Natland near Kendal where antagonisms were less severe. Following further difficulties trying to teach men to preach, who the law intended to keep silent, he moved the school several times - ending up at Attercliffe near Sheffield.

In 1687 James II was King and repeated the "Act of Indulgence". In order to see the Catholics in power he had to grant enfranchisement all round giving all faiths liberty of conscience and freedom of worship. Frankland accepted the Indulgence and took out a 50/- licence enabling him to carry out his work , with some difficulties but without serious disturbance.

Following the start of the reign of William and Mary and the passing of the Toleration Act, Frankland returned to Rathmell. The attacks on him did not cease. Oxford and Cambridge graduates had pledged not to teach elsewhere as at university. The Clerical Party held that this made all ministerial training illegal but the nonconformists held that it meant teaching at any rival university.

Frankland had 160 ministerial students prior to his return to Rathmell and 140 afterwards. The results of his work must have been felt widely in national life.

The academy was a Puritan's love of knowledge. Puritanism was not born of ignorance nor did it thrive on it. Its leaders were men of university training and, when the universities closed their doors against dissent, these men were filled with passionate desire to train those who were to follow them in a complete and efficient way. In 1698 at a solemnity at Rathnell, nine students were ordained.

Frankland died in 1698 and shortly afterwards Rathmell closed. In 1699 John Chorlton who had studied at Natland began to teach university learning in a large house in Manchester, establishing the first Manchester Academy. Fourteen young men of Rathnell transferred and became Chorlton's first pupils. The academy lasted for fifteen years, during which active persecution continued. In 1703 Chorlton was prosecuted for keeping a public academy but in spite of this interruption he was able to carry on.