Hackney students were very visible to London society as potential political radicals and made their presence felt in the gallery of the House of Commons on 2 March 1790 when Charles James Fox gave his celebrated speech against the Test and Corporation Acts. The College had been planned by a group of dissenters and in January 1786 it was opened by a committee which included Jeremiah Joyce's mentor and teacher, Hugh Worthington. Joyce was a divinity student and he secured a College 'foundation' provided through the trustees of the Presbyterian Fund, which meant that he didn't have to pay the considerable sixty guinea sessional tuition and board fees. Joyce's Unitarian theology and the epistemology that went with it provided the fundamental justification for his political radicalism. Joyce's theological perspective developed considerably through his time at Hackney and his critical studies of the bible were also applied to his own Arian stance.