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William Wilberforce and St Paul's Church Mill Hill

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On leaving Parliament, Wilberforce resided at Uxbridge whilst seeking a suitable retirement home. After a long search he purchased an estate of some 140 acres at Highwood Hill. At that time Highwood lay at the northern extremity of Hendon Parish in a group of hamlets - Highwood Hill, Bittacy Hill, Mylespit Hill and Holcombe Hill, which collectively form the Mill Hill of today. The names indicate the topography of high ground with extensive views over farmland vales growing mostly hay.
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The parish was in the shape of a long narrow rectangle aligned north south bisected by a small river which, being prone to winter flooding, made north south travel difficult. The parish church was in the south some 3 miles distant. The choice of Highwood, apart from its rurality which appealed to Wilberforce's love of nature and of walking, may have been influenced by the knowledge that the then vicar was intending to build a chapel at Mill Hill. When after three years it was not forthcoming, Wilberforce determined to build one for his and his neighbours' benefit at his own expense. The actual siting, patronage and materials used in its construction caused controversy and delay such that though building commenced in 1828-9 the chapel was not consecrated until a few days after Wilberforce's death in 1833.

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During the building period, Wilberforce's financial circumstances changed dramatically when he undertook responsibility for heavy losses incurred by his son. He refused all offers of assistance from his many friends other than gifts for his new chapel. One such gift is the treasured 'east' window containing a painted glass panel by Charles Muss depicting the 'The Dead Christ Mourned (The Three Maries)'; his only extant signed work. The church designed by Samuel Hood Page, is of brick, stuccoed and painted. It corresponds closely with the 'Commissioners Gothic' of 1818 in having a small chancel and a simple gallery at the west end supported on cast iron pillars

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William Wilberforce and the Anti-Slavery Movement

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"The happiest day I had then spent in my life." The words of Thomas Clarkson when he learned that Wilberforce had agreed to the request of Prime Minister Pitt to lead the Parliamentary Campaign for the abolition of the Slave Trade.​

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Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists had recognised the need for a strong, nationally respected voice in Parliament to achieve the legislation necessary for their cause to succeed. Encouraged by this news, the abolitionists at once formed The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. So came into being a long and friendly collaboration in which the evidence amassed by Clarkson was used to great effect in the Commons by Wilberforce as he pressed repeatedly over the next 20 years for action. Success came In 1807 with a Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

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Thinking its work done, the committee of 1787 was dissolved in the expectation that stopping the trade would result in an end to slavery itself. It became clear within a few years that this was not to be. In 1823 a new campaign was launched with the formation of The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions. The aim now was not the cessation of trade in new slaves, but the freeing of those already enslaved. Although fully committed to this campaigning, Wilberforce was now in poor health. He retired from parliament before its conclusion and made a last appearance at a society meeting in May 1830. The work continued and success was achieved finally on 26th July 1833 with the second reading of the Abolition Bill just 3 days before the death of Wilberforce.

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The fight against slavery continues however and is wider in scope. In 1839, The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society for the Universal Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed. It is this charity now known as Anti-Slavery International, which continues today to combat modern slavery. Slavery now defined by the United Nations as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to right of ownership are exercised" - a definition which encompasses bonded or debt bondage and the trafficking in women and children which among others are still gross violations of human rights today.

William Wilberforce at Westminster

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The Palace of Westminster has been the seat of government for almost a millennium. First as the home of the Sovereign and the Court, subsequently as the meeting place of Parliament which, since the Declaration of Rights in 1689 is the supreme law making body.

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Lords and those representing the communities - the Commons - met together in the palace. Following the death of Edward 1, the two 'Houses' met separately. The Lords in the White Chamber, the Commons, in various rooms in the palace. The upper Chapel of St. Stephen was secularised at the Reformation and was used as the Commons Chamber from 1547 until destroyed, along with most of the Old Palace, by fire in 1834. The present chamber is part of the new building completed in 1852 and rebuilt in 1950 in much the same form after war damage.

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It was in the old Commons Chamber (illustration) that Wilberforce debated. First elected in 1780 when only 21 years old, for Hull (his birthplace), he chose to represent Yorkshire from 1784. He retired from contested elections in 1812. Electoral procedure differed greatly then. He sat thereafter for the Borough of Bramber until forced by poor health to leave Parliament in 1825.

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William Wilberforce is associated in the public consciousness with the Anti-Slavery Movement on behalf of which be fought for 38 of his 45 years as an M.P. Reading accounts of that fight offers an insight into the complexities of parliamentary procedure which remain much the same today. Wilberforce was not a single-issue politician. Throughout his career, he championed a number of measures related to the betterment of the lives of his fellow citizens. The substitution of hanging for burning as capital punishment for women illustrates prevailing conditions.

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It is often overlooked that his work was carried out at a time when Parliament faced grave issues on the world scene war with France, war in America among them - that consideration was given to him is a tribute to the democratic system.

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Wilberforce worked tirelessly to effect an improvement in the manners and morals of his contemporaries in the Commons and beyond. Success cannot be attributed directly to him, but the decade immediately following his retirement witnessed the passage of a number of measures: electoral reform, revision of the Poor Law, government grants for education, Factories Acts, Roman Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Test and Truck Acts, most of which he had applied his influence. The beginnings of a process culminating in the Welfare State of today.

Useful Links and Selected Secondary Works on William Wilberforce

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  • Coupland, Sir Reginald, Wilberforce: A Narrative (London: Collins, 1923)

  • Cowie, Leonard W., William Wilberforce, 1759-1833, a Bibliography (London: Greenwood Press, 1992)

  • Furneaux, Robin, William Wilberforce (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1974)

  • Gurney, J.J., Familiar Sketch of William Wilberforce (Norwich: Josiah Fletcher, 1838)

  • Lean, Garth, God's Politician: William Wilberforce's Struggle (London : Darton, Longman and Todd, 1980)

  • Pollock, John, William Wilberforce (London: Constable, 1977)

  • Wilberforce, Anna Maria, The Private Papers of William Wilberforce (London: T.F. Unwin, 1897)

  • Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel Wilberforce, Life of William Wilberforce, 5 vols (London: John Murray, 1838)

  • Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel Wilberforce, The Correspondence of William Wilberforce, 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1840)

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