85 Facts About William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.

In 1787, Wilberforce came into contact with Thomas Clarkson and a group of activists against the slave trade, including Granville Sharp, Hannah More and Charles Middleton.

William Wilberforce headed the parliamentary campaign against the British Slave Trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.

William Wilberforce was convinced of the importance of religion, morality and education.

William Wilberforce championed causes and campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

William Wilberforce's underlying conservatism led him to support politically and socially controversial legislation, which resulted in criticism that he was ignoring injustices at home while campaigning for the enslaved abroad.

In later years, William Wilberforce supported the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery and continued his involvement after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing health.

William Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured.

William Wilberforce was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his friend William Pitt the Younger.

William Wilberforce was a partner in a business that built the Old Sugar House on Lime Street, which imported raw sugar from plantations in the West Indies.

William Wilberforce was a small, sickly and delicate child with poor eyesight.

William Wilberforce profited from the supportive atmosphere at the school, until his father's death in 1768 caused changes in his living arrangements.

William Wilberforce attended an "indifferent" boarding school in Putney for two years.

William Wilberforce spent his holidays in Wimbledon, where he grew extremely fond of his relatives.

William Wilberforce became interested in evangelical Christianity due to his relatives' influence, especially that of his aunt Hannah, sister of the wealthy merchant John Thornton, a philanthropist and a supporter of the leading Methodist preacher George Whitefield.

William Wilberforce was heartbroken at being separated from his aunt and uncle.

Witty, generous and an excellent conversationalist, William Wilberforce was a popular figure.

William Wilberforce made many friends, including the more studious future Prime Minister William Pitt.

Pitt, already set on a political career, encouraged William Wilberforce to join him in obtaining a parliamentary seat.

Free from financial pressures, William Wilberforce sat as an independent, resolving to be a "no party man".

William Wilberforce attended Parliament regularly, but he maintained a lively social life, becoming an habitue of gentlemen's gambling clubs such as Goostree's and Boodle's in Pall Mall, London.

When Parliament was dissolved in the spring of 1784, William Wilberforce decided to stand as a candidate for the county of Yorkshire in the 1784 general election.

William Wilberforce travelled with his mother and sister in the company of Isaac Milner, the brilliant younger brother of his former headmaster, who had been Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, in the year when Wilberforce first went up.

William Wilberforce rejoined the party in Genoa, Italy, from where they continued their tour to Switzerland.

William Wilberforce started to rise early to read the Bible and pray and kept a private journal.

William Wilberforce underwent an evangelical conversion, regretting his past life and resolving to commit his future life and work to the service of God.

William Wilberforce's conversion changed some of his habits, but not his nature: he remained outwardly cheerful, interested and respectful, tactfully urging others towards his new faith.

Evangelicals in the upper classes, such as Sir Richard Hill, the Methodist MP for Shropshire, and Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, were exposed to contempt and ridicule, and William Wilberforce's conversion led him to question whether he should remain in public life.

William Wilberforce sought guidance from John Newton, a leading evangelical Anglican clergyman of the day and Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London.

William Wilberforce's views were often deeply conservative, opposed to radical changes in a God-given political and social order, and focused on issues such as the observance of the Sabbath and the eradication of immorality through education and reform.

In 1786, William Wilberforce leased a house in Old Palace Yard, Westminster, in order to be near Parliament.

William Wilberforce began using his parliamentary position to advocate reform by introducing a Registration Bill, proposing limited changes to parliamentary election procedures.

William Wilberforce brought forward a bill to extend the measure permitting the dissection after execution of criminals such as rapists, arsonists and thieves.

William Wilberforce apparently did not follow up on his meeting with Ramsay.

However, three years later, and inspired by his new faith, William Wilberforce was growing interested in humanitarian reform.

At the urging of Lady Middleton, Sir Charles suggested that William Wilberforce bring forward the abolition of the slave trade in Parliament.

William Wilberforce responded that he "felt the great importance of the subject, and thought himself unequal to the task allotted to him, but yet would not positively decline it".

The Quakers, already working for abolition, recognised the need for influence within Parliament, and urged Clarkson to secure a commitment from William Wilberforce to bring forward the case for abolition in the House of Commons.

William Wilberforce sensed a call from God, writing in a journal entry in 1787 that "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners [moral values]".

William Wilberforce, though involved informally, did not join the committee officially until 1791.

William Wilberforce had planned to introduce a motion giving notice that he would bring forward a bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade during the 1789 parliamentary session.

William Wilberforce moved 12 resolutions condemning the slave trade, but made no reference to the abolition of slavery itself, instead dwelling on the potential for reproduction in the existing slave population should the trade be abolished.

Such was the public hysteria of the time that even William Wilberforce himself was suspected by some of being a Jacobin agitator.

William Wilberforce was supported in his work by fellow members of the so-called Clapham Sect, among whom was his best friend and cousin Henry Thornton.

William Wilberforce accepted an invitation to share a house with Henry Thornton in 1792, moving into his own home after Thornton's marriage in 1796.

William Wilberforce voiced his concern about the war and urged Pitt and his government to make greater efforts to end hostilities.

Enough of his supporters, to have carried it were, as William Wilberforce complains, attending a new comic opera.

However, despite the decreased interest in abolition, William Wilberforce continued to introduce abolition bills throughout the 1790s.

On this occasion and throughout the campaign, abolition was held back by William Wilberforce's trusting, even credulous nature, and his deferential attitude towards those in power.

William Wilberforce found it difficult to believe that men of rank would not do what he perceived to be the right thing, and was reluctant to confront them when they did not.

William Wilberforce and Clarkson had collected a large volume of evidence against the slave trade over the previous two decades, and William Wilberforce spent the latter part of 1806 writing A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which was a comprehensive restatement of the abolitionists' case.

William Wilberforce was re-elected as an MP for Yorkshire, after which he returned to finishing and publishing his Letter, in reality a 400-page book which formed the basis for the final phase of the campaign.

William Wilberforce was an indulgent and adoring father who revelled in his time at home and at play with his children.

William Wilberforce was highly conservative on many political and social issues.

William Wilberforce advocated change in society through Christianity and improvement in morals, education and religion, fearing and opposing radical causes and revolution.

The radical writer William Cobbett was among those who attacked what they saw as Wilberforce's hypocrisy in campaigning for better working conditions for slaves while British workers lived in terrible conditions at home.

William Wilberforce was opposed to giving workers' rights to organise into unions, in 1799 speaking in favour of the Combination Act, which suppressed trade union activity throughout Britain, and calling unions "a general disease in our society".

William Wilberforce opposed an enquiry into the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in which eleven protesters were killed at a political rally demanding reform.

William Wilberforce recognised the importance of education in alleviating poverty, and when Hannah More and her sister established Sunday schools for the poor in Somerset and the Mendips, he provided financial and moral support as they faced opposition from landowners and Anglican clergy.

In 1824, William Wilberforce was one of over 30 eminent gentlemen who put their names at the inaugural public meeting to the fledgling National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, later named the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

William Wilberforce was opposed to duelling, which he described as the "disgrace of a Christian society" and was appalled when his friend Pitt engaged in a duel with George Tierney in 1798, particularly as it occurred on a Sunday, the Christian day of rest.

William Wilberforce was generous with his time and money, believing that those with wealth had a duty to give a significant portion of their income to the needy.

William Wilberforce paid off the debts of others, supported education and missions, and in a year of food shortages, gave to charity more than his own yearly income.

William Wilberforce was exceptionally hospitable, and could not bear to sack any of his servants.

William Wilberforce sought to elevate the status of religion in public and private life, making piety fashionable in both the upper- and middle-classes of society.

William Wilberforce fostered and supported missionary activity in Britain and abroad, involved with other members of the Clapham Sect in various evangelical and charitable organisations.

William Wilberforce was a founding member of the Church Missionary Society ; and first vice-president of the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, which worked to convert mainly poor immigrants Jews to Christianity, and claimed widespread success.

William Wilberforce was horrified by the lack of Christian evangelism in India, Wilberforce used the 1793 renewal of the British East India Company's charter to propose the addition of clauses requiring the company to provide teachers and chaplains and to commit to the "religious improvement" of Indians.

William Wilberforce tried again in 1813, when the charter next came up for renewal.

Greatly concerned by what he perceived to be the degeneracy of British society, William Wilberforce was active in matters of moral reform, lobbying against "the torrent of profaneness that every day makes more rapid advances", and considered this issue and the abolition of the slave trade as equally important goals.

William Wilberforce worked with the members of the African Institution to ensure the enforcement of abolition and to promote abolitionist negotiations with other countries.

Nevertheless, William Wilberforce still hoped "to lay a foundation for some future measures for the emancipation of the poor slaves", which he believed should come about gradually in stages.

Subsequent debates followed on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which William Wilberforce made his last speeches in the House of Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the ministry government.

William Wilberforce's health was continuing to fail, and he suffered further illnesses in 1824 and 1825.

William Wilberforce had attempted a series of educational and career paths, and a venture into farming in 1830 led to huge losses, which his father repaid in full, despite offers from others to assist.

William Wilberforce continued his support for the anti-slavery cause, including attending and chairing meetings of the Anti-Slavery Society.

William Wilberforce approved of the 1830 election victory of the more progressive Whigs, though he was concerned about the implications of their Reform Bill which proposed the redistribution of parliamentary seats towards newer towns and cities and an extension of the franchise.

In 1833, William Wilberforce's health declined further and he suffered a severe attack of influenza from which he never fully recovered.

William Wilberforce made a final anti-slavery speech in April 1833 at a public meeting in Maidstone, Kent.

On 26 July 1833, William Wilberforce heard of government concessions that guaranteed the passing of the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery.

William Wilberforce had requested that he be buried with his sister and daughter at St Mary's Church, Stoke Newington, just north of London.

Five years after his death, sons Robert and Samuel William Wilberforce published a five-volume biography about their father, and subsequently a collection of his letters in 1840.

Later historians have noted the warm and highly productive relationship between Clarkson and William Wilberforce, and have termed it one of history's great partnerships: without both the parliamentary leadership supplied by William Wilberforce and the research and public mobilisation organised by Clarkson, abolition could not have been achieved.

William Wilberforce's birthplace was acquired by the city corporation in 1903 and, following renovation, William Wilberforce House in Hull was opened as Britain's first slavery museum.

In Ontario, Canada, William Wilberforce Colony was founded by black reformers, and inhabited by free slaves from the United States.