Wilberforce, William

(1759–1833)

   Philanthropist.

   Wilberforce was born in Hull, England, and he was educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1780 he was elected a Member of Parliament. Soon afterwards he was converted to a strict evangelical style of living and he became associated with the Clapham Sect – a group which tried to promote evangelical ideals in public life. He is mainly remembered for his determined efforts to abolish the slave trade. A close friend of both the Prime Minister, William Pitt, and the hymn-writer John newton, he used his considerable oratorical powers to gain his end. The Abolition Bill finally became law in 1807 and the final Emancipation Act, freeing all slaves in the British Empire, was achieved just before his death. Among other activities, he helped found the Church Missionary Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society; he contributed to the charities of Hannah more and he was the author of the much read Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians. Of his sons, Samuel wilberforce became an Anglican Bishop, Robert was prominent in the Oxford Movement, but eventually became a Roman Catholic, and Henry also converted to Catholicism and for several years was editor of the Catholic Standard.

   R.T. Anstey, The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition (1975);

   R. Coupland, Wilberforce, 2^nd edn (1945);

   R. Furneaux, William Wilberforce (1974).