Michael Maurice (1766–1855): Unitarian minister and schoolmaster. Born at Eastwood, Yorkshire, he was educated at Leeds Grammar, Hoxton Academy and Hackney College. In 1787 he converted to Unitarianism. From 1787–1792 he was assistant minister of the Old Meeting, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He was a foundation member of the Unitarian Society in 1791 and in 1792 was elected evening preacher at the chapel at Hackney in which Joseph Priestley preached in the mornings. In 1794 he married Priscilla Hurry, daughter of a Yarmouth timber merchant. They had ten children, of whom the fifth was the theologian Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872; DNB). Maurice was distantly connected by marriage to William Taylor. The latter was involved in securing a place for Henry Herbert Southey at the school Maurice ran at Normanston manor house, near the Suffolk port of Lowestoft.

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