Bedford college

Bedford College was founded in 1849 by Elizabeth Jesser Reid. It took its name from its first home, No. 47 Bedford Square in London's Bloomsbury, and despite successive moves the name did not change. It was always felt that the institution was more than the name. Elizabeth Reid, daughter of William Sturch, a Unitarian businessman, was widowed at the early age of 32 and left with enough money to patronise various philanthropic causes.

As few of her papers have survived it is not possible to say with accuracy what prompted Mrs Reid to found Bedford College but it is clear that two factors were important. One was the influence of her circle of well-educated friends, the other was the limitation of her own education. After the death of her parents she and her sister Mary, moved into their house in York Terrace, Regents' Park and gathered together a group which included Jane Martineau, Anna Swanwick, Augustus de Morgan and Henry Crabbe Robinson. The promptings of these people, and the foundation in 1848 of Queen's College, Harley Street, (a few hundred yards from York Terrace) for the education of governesses, must have been important factors in the founding of Bedford College. It is also clear from what Mrs Reid herself wrote later to Elizabeth Bostock that she felt frustrated by the lack of opportunities in her own education despite being brought up in a liberal, educated household.

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