A talented orator, many of William Wilberforce's fellow politicians said he could be Prime Minister but instead he devoted himself to his calling-the abolition of slavery.
William Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire on August 24, 1759.
He was born to Robert Wilberforce (1728–68), a wealthy merchant, and his wife Elizabeth,.
A sickly child, William was their only son.
The Jacobean house where Wilberforce was born on Hull's High Street now stands as a Museum.
After his father's death, the nine-year-old slightly built Yorkshire boy went to live with his Uncle William and Aunt Hannah at their Wimbledon villa in the countryside.
William became interested in evangelical Christianity through the influence of his aunt, but his staunch Anglican mother, alarmed at the youngster's increasing non-conformist leanings, bought him back to Hull.
A fair classicist who had clear handwriting, Wilberforce attended Hull Grammar school. When he moved in with his aunt and uncle they placed him at a boarding school in Putney. On returning to Hull he spent 1771-76 at Pocklington Grammar School near York.
In 1776, William Wilberforce was sent to St John's College, Cambridge. He was shocked by the behaviour of most of his fellow students and later wrote: "I was introduced on the very first night of my arrival to as licentious a set of men as can well be conceived. They drank hard, and their conversation was even worse than their lives."
Amongst these surroundings, Wilberforce befriended William Pitt the Younger who would later become the Prime Minister.
The young Wilberforce had developed an interest in politics and at the age of 21, whilst still a student, he was elected Member of Parliament for Kingston Upon Hull.
Wilberforce's eloquent speaking voice whilst making political speeches was immediately noted, as was a tendency towards tardiness. He was seen as a man, who while weak in health and insignificantly small in body was blessed with an unique gift of witty and eloquent oratory.
Politically deeply conservative, Wilberforce was opposed to radical changes in a God-given political and social order. He focused on issues such as the eradication of immorality through education and reform.
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, and the foundation of the Church Mission Society.
He was one of the founder members in 1824 of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Weak in health, after falling in ill in 1825 Wilberforce was forced to resign as MP.
An early influence on William's faith was the former slave trader, John Newton, who had become the vicar of Olney in Buckinghamshire. However after it was decided by his mother that the evangelical Newton was a bad influence on him, they lost contact and William drifted away from God for a time.
At Cambridge University Wilberforce pursued a hedonistic lifestyle enjoying cards, gambling and late-night drinking sessions.
In 1785 a journey across Europe with a Christian friend, Isaac Milner, changed his life for ever. During the trip, Wilberforce's reading of the Bible and Philip Doddridge's book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul brought him to a spiritual crisis and he returned to God.
At first Wilberforce wanted to go into the church but eventually his friends persuaded him to stay on as an MP. One friend was John Newton, with whom Wilberforce had renewed acquaintance.
Wilberforce had a gift for setting forth what biographer John Pollock calls "the intellectual heart of Christianity." In 1797, he published A Practical View of Christianity, an exposition of New Testament doctrine and teachings and a call for a revival of faith. The book was a best-seller by the standards of the day; 7,500 copies were sold within six months.
In the 1780s over 100,000 Africans were being shipped abroad every year and more than half were being carried on British ships. Around the time of Wilberforce's conversion, a British campaign to abolish the slave trade, originally by Quakers had begun to gain support from within the evangelical wing of the church. The testimony of John Newton and many others about the cruel conditions, the slaves had to endure convinced many that something had to be done.
As he grew in his faith, Wilberforce became increasingly interested in humanitarian affairs. He became a leader of the Clapham Sect, centered on Holy Trinity Church, Clapham in London, a fellowship of influential Anglicans who prayed several hours a day to get laws changed, lobbying hard to MPs. Wilberforce was seen as a potential key figure by the slave trade abolitionists and after a number of meetings and exchange of letters he saw that God was calling him to be a figurehead of the movement. He said "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners."
Wilberforce made his first major speech on abolition in the House of Commons on May 12, 1789. He reasoned the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice.
In 1791 the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, wrote on his deathbed to Wilberforce encouraging him not to give up in his fight against slavery. Two months later the evangelical MP moved in the House of Commons that the import of African slaves be banned but lost the vote 168-88. In 1793, another vote to abolish the slave trade was narrowly defeated by eight votes.
The war with France effectively prevented any further serious consideration of the issue for a time, and as politicians concentrated on the threat of invasion, there was a decline in public support for several years. However, despite battling ill-health, Wilberforce refused to give up and in 1804 he bought another bill to Parliament.
Though that bill was defeated, a radical change of tactics, which involved the introduction of a bill by another MP banning British subjects from participating in the slave trade to the French colonies and an increasing amount of abolitionist MPs in the House of Commons, finally bore fruit for the persistent Wilberforce, In 1807, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire though all existing slaves were still bound to their masters.
A blind, elderly John Newton witnessed the passing of the bill in the visitors' gallery. Britain was the first Western country to abolish the slave trade and much of this was due to the persistence of William Wilberforce MP.
5ft 3ins and slightly built, Wilberforce had a tipped up nose that seemed too long for his face and hazel eyes.
William Pitt the Younger said Wilberforce had the greatest natural eloquence he had ever heard.
After hearing him speak, Dr Johnson's biographer, Boswell, wrote: " I saw what seemed to be a shrimp mount upon the table but as I listened he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale."
Wilberforce was spirited with a heart of gold but scatty.
In his younger days Wilberforce was a fashionable young man with powdered hair and untidy clothes
In his older years, Wilberforce was a strange-looking little figure with hair still powdered though the fashion had almost died out. He wore a sometimes dingy black suit without ornament except for a diamond pin.
Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner at St Swithins Church, Walcot, Bath on May 30, 1797. She was the third child of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, a banker of Birmingham, and his wife, Barbara Gough-Calthorpe, the sister of the first Lord Calthorpe.
Barbara bore six children, all of whom survived to adulthood. William, (July 1798), Barbara (1799), Elizabeth (1801), Robert (1802), Samuel (1805), and Henry (1807).
Samuel Wilberforce (1808-73) was chaplain to Prince Albert and later Bishop of Winchester. He was a leading opponent of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Wilberforce was a moderate drinker of wine and laced his bedtime milk with rum.
William Wilberforce gave away so much that he lived his closing years in comparative poverty having sold his little estate and gone to live with his two parson sons. "A man can be as happy without a fortune as with one" Wilberforce said. He had learnt to travel light.
In 1833 all slaves in the British Empire were released, with the British Government paying a huge sum to compensate all the slave owners. When the dying Wilberforce heard this news on his deathbed, he mumbled, "Thank God that I have lived to witness a day when England is willing to give 20 million sterling for the abolition of slavery."
 |
| 29-yr-old William Wilberforce by John Rising, 1790, |
EARLY LIFE
William Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire on August 24, 1759.
He was born to Robert Wilberforce (1728–68), a wealthy merchant, and his wife Elizabeth,.
A sickly child, William was their only son.
The Jacobean house where Wilberforce was born on Hull's High Street now stands as a Museum.
 |
| Wilberforce's birthplace |
After his father's death, the nine-year-old slightly built Yorkshire boy went to live with his Uncle William and Aunt Hannah at their Wimbledon villa in the countryside.
William became interested in evangelical Christianity through the influence of his aunt, but his staunch Anglican mother, alarmed at the youngster's increasing non-conformist leanings, bought him back to Hull.
A fair classicist who had clear handwriting, Wilberforce attended Hull Grammar school. When he moved in with his aunt and uncle they placed him at a boarding school in Putney. On returning to Hull he spent 1771-76 at Pocklington Grammar School near York.
In 1776, William Wilberforce was sent to St John's College, Cambridge. He was shocked by the behaviour of most of his fellow students and later wrote: "I was introduced on the very first night of my arrival to as licentious a set of men as can well be conceived. They drank hard, and their conversation was even worse than their lives."
Amongst these surroundings, Wilberforce befriended William Pitt the Younger who would later become the Prime Minister.
POLITICAL CAREER
The young Wilberforce had developed an interest in politics and at the age of 21, whilst still a student, he was elected Member of Parliament for Kingston Upon Hull.
Wilberforce's eloquent speaking voice whilst making political speeches was immediately noted, as was a tendency towards tardiness. He was seen as a man, who while weak in health and insignificantly small in body was blessed with an unique gift of witty and eloquent oratory.
 |
| Young Wilberforce |
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, and the foundation of the Church Mission Society.
He was one of the founder members in 1824 of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Weak in health, after falling in ill in 1825 Wilberforce was forced to resign as MP.
BELIEFS
An early influence on William's faith was the former slave trader, John Newton, who had become the vicar of Olney in Buckinghamshire. However after it was decided by his mother that the evangelical Newton was a bad influence on him, they lost contact and William drifted away from God for a time.
At Cambridge University Wilberforce pursued a hedonistic lifestyle enjoying cards, gambling and late-night drinking sessions.
In 1785 a journey across Europe with a Christian friend, Isaac Milner, changed his life for ever. During the trip, Wilberforce's reading of the Bible and Philip Doddridge's book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul brought him to a spiritual crisis and he returned to God.
At first Wilberforce wanted to go into the church but eventually his friends persuaded him to stay on as an MP. One friend was John Newton, with whom Wilberforce had renewed acquaintance.
Wilberforce had a gift for setting forth what biographer John Pollock calls "the intellectual heart of Christianity." In 1797, he published A Practical View of Christianity, an exposition of New Testament doctrine and teachings and a call for a revival of faith. The book was a best-seller by the standards of the day; 7,500 copies were sold within six months.
ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE
In the 1780s over 100,000 Africans were being shipped abroad every year and more than half were being carried on British ships. Around the time of Wilberforce's conversion, a British campaign to abolish the slave trade, originally by Quakers had begun to gain support from within the evangelical wing of the church. The testimony of John Newton and many others about the cruel conditions, the slaves had to endure convinced many that something had to be done.
 |
| Medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood, 1787 |
As he grew in his faith, Wilberforce became increasingly interested in humanitarian affairs. He became a leader of the Clapham Sect, centered on Holy Trinity Church, Clapham in London, a fellowship of influential Anglicans who prayed several hours a day to get laws changed, lobbying hard to MPs. Wilberforce was seen as a potential key figure by the slave trade abolitionists and after a number of meetings and exchange of letters he saw that God was calling him to be a figurehead of the movement. He said "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners."
Wilberforce made his first major speech on abolition in the House of Commons on May 12, 1789. He reasoned the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice.
In 1791 the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, wrote on his deathbed to Wilberforce encouraging him not to give up in his fight against slavery. Two months later the evangelical MP moved in the House of Commons that the import of African slaves be banned but lost the vote 168-88. In 1793, another vote to abolish the slave trade was narrowly defeated by eight votes.
The war with France effectively prevented any further serious consideration of the issue for a time, and as politicians concentrated on the threat of invasion, there was a decline in public support for several years. However, despite battling ill-health, Wilberforce refused to give up and in 1804 he bought another bill to Parliament.
 |
| The House of Commons in Wilberforce's day by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson (1808–1811) |
Though that bill was defeated, a radical change of tactics, which involved the introduction of a bill by another MP banning British subjects from participating in the slave trade to the French colonies and an increasing amount of abolitionist MPs in the House of Commons, finally bore fruit for the persistent Wilberforce, In 1807, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire though all existing slaves were still bound to their masters.
A blind, elderly John Newton witnessed the passing of the bill in the visitors' gallery. Britain was the first Western country to abolish the slave trade and much of this was due to the persistence of William Wilberforce MP.
APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER
5ft 3ins and slightly built, Wilberforce had a tipped up nose that seemed too long for his face and hazel eyes.
 |
| William Wilberforce by Karl Anton Hickel, c. 1794 |
William Pitt the Younger said Wilberforce had the greatest natural eloquence he had ever heard.
After hearing him speak, Dr Johnson's biographer, Boswell, wrote: " I saw what seemed to be a shrimp mount upon the table but as I listened he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale."
Wilberforce was spirited with a heart of gold but scatty.
In his younger days Wilberforce was a fashionable young man with powdered hair and untidy clothes
In his older years, Wilberforce was a strange-looking little figure with hair still powdered though the fashion had almost died out. He wore a sometimes dingy black suit without ornament except for a diamond pin.
PERSONAL LIFE
Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner at St Swithins Church, Walcot, Bath on May 30, 1797. She was the third child of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, a banker of Birmingham, and his wife, Barbara Gough-Calthorpe, the sister of the first Lord Calthorpe.
 |
| Portrait in about 1797 by John Russell |
Barbara bore six children, all of whom survived to adulthood. William, (July 1798), Barbara (1799), Elizabeth (1801), Robert (1802), Samuel (1805), and Henry (1807).
Samuel Wilberforce (1808-73) was chaplain to Prince Albert and later Bishop of Winchester. He was a leading opponent of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Wilberforce was a moderate drinker of wine and laced his bedtime milk with rum.
LAST YEARS AND DEATH
William Wilberforce gave away so much that he lived his closing years in comparative poverty having sold his little estate and gone to live with his two parson sons. "A man can be as happy without a fortune as with one" Wilberforce said. He had learnt to travel light.
In 1833 all slaves in the British Empire were released, with the British Government paying a huge sum to compensate all the slave owners. When the dying Wilberforce heard this news on his deathbed, he mumbled, "Thank God that I have lived to witness a day when England is willing to give 20 million sterling for the abolition of slavery."
The day after Wilberforce heard about the government concessions that guaranteed the passing of the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery, he grew much weaker. Wilberforce died aged 73 early on the morning of July 29, 1933 at his cousin's house at 44, Cadogan Place, London.
Source Wilberforce by John Pollock
Source Wilberforce by John Pollock
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