The core group of the Phalanx, which suggested the geographical association with Hackney borough then east of the London conurbation, consisted of Norris, the layman Joshua Watson, and his clerical brother John James Watson.
The context of Hackney in the first two decades of the 19th century was of an area that as a suburb of London had wealthy families, but also an active non-conformist intellectual and religious life, particularly Unitarians.