- Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet (
7 April 1786 –19 February 1845 ) was an EnglishMember of Parliament , brewer,abolitionist and social reformer.Buxton was born at
Castle Hedingham ,Essex ,England . His father was also named Thomas Fowell Buxton. His mother's maiden name was Anna Hanbury. She was aQuaker (member of theReligious Society of Friends ). Through the influence of his mother, Buxton became a close friend ofJoseph John Gurney and his sister,Elizabeth Fry , who were both prominent Quakers. Buxton married their sister Hannah Gurney, of Earlham Hall,Norwich in May 1807. He lived at Easneye, Herts.Early life
In 1808, Buxton's Hanbury family connections led to an appointment to work at the
brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, inBrick Lane ,Spitalfields ,London . In 1811, he was appointed a partner in the business, now renamed Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co; he later became sole owner of the company.Although he was a member of the
Church of England , Buxton attended Friends meetings with the Gurneys and became involved in the social reform movement being led by Friends. He helped raise money for the weavers of London who were forced into poverty by the factory system. He provided financial support for Elizabeth Fry’s prison reform work and became a member of her Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners inNewgate .Buxton was elected as a
Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1818. As an MP he worked for changes in prison conditions and criminal law and for theabolition of slavery . He also opposedcapital punishment and pushed for its abolition. Although he never accomplished this last goal during his lifetime, he did help to reduce the number of crimes punishable by death from more than two hundred to eight.Thomas and Hannah Buxton had eight children. Four of them died of
whooping cough during a five-week period around April 1820. Another one died of consumption some time later.Abolitionism
The slave trade had been abolished in 1807, but Buxton began to work for the abolishment of slavery itself. He helped found the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery (later the
Anti-Slavery Society ) in 1823. He took over as leader of the abolition movement in theBritish House of Commons afterWilliam Wilberforce retired in 1825. His efforts paid off in 1833 when slavery was officially abolished in theBritish Empire . Buxton held his seat in Parliament until 1837.In 1839 Buxton urged the British government to make treaties with
Africa n leaders to abolish the slave trade. They sent a team (not including Buxton) to theNiger River Delta in 1841 that set up a headquarters and began negotiations. The party suffered so many deaths from disease that the government called them back.David Livingstone was strongly influenced by Buxton’s arguments that theAfrican slave trade might be destroyed through the influence of “legitimate trade” and the spread of Christianity, which helped inspire him to become a missionary in Africa and to fight the slave trade all his life.In 1840 Buxton was created a
baronet . His health failed gradually, which some believed was caused by the disappointment over the failed mission to Africa. He died a few years later. There is a monument to him inWestminster Abbey , and a memorial to theemancipation of slaves and dedicated to Buxton inVictoria Tower Gardens (commissioned by his sonCharles Buxton MP, theBuxton Memorial Fountain , designed bySamuel Sanders Teulon , was initially erected inParliament Square , but was removed in 1940 and moved to its current location in 1957). Fowell Close in Earlham, Norwich, is named after him.Recent Memorials
A representation of Buxton can be also seen on the current English five pound note. He is the figure wearing glasses in the group on the left-hand side of
Elizabeth Fry .In February 2007 a plaque was attached in his memory to the
Norwich Friends Meeting House in Upper Goat Lane.Buxton Road, part of the main route between
Weymouth and theIsle of Portland is named after Sir Thomas Buxton, where he was Member of Parliament for 19 years. The road runs past Bellfield Park, his former home inWyke Regis .Writings
*"An Enquiry, Whether Crime and Misery are produced or prevented by our present system of Prison Discipline" (1818)
*"The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy" (London: J. Murray, 1839)References
*Barclay, Oliver. "Thomas Fowell Buxton and the liberation of slaves" (York: William Sessions, 2001)
*Binney, Thomas. "Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart. A study for young men" (London: Religious Tract Society, 1849; reissued by J. Nisbet & Co, 1853)
*Buxton, Charles (Ed). "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton Bart" (London, 1848).
* Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. "Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World". (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2007)
*Temperley, Howard. "British antislavery, 1833-1870" (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972)Descendents of Sir Thomas Buxton
Buxton had a number of notable descendents, and the table below is intended to show the relationships between them.
Sir Edward North Buxton, 2nd Baronet . (1812-1858) married Catherine Gurney ::Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet (1837-1915) married Lady Victoria Noel ::::Sir Thomas Fowell Victor Buxton, 4th Baronet (1865 – 1919}::::Noel Edward Noel-Buxton, 1st Baron Noel-Buxton (1869 – 1948)::::Charles Roden Buxton (1875 – 1942) ::::Harold Jocelyn Buxton (1880 -::::Leland William Wilberforce Buxton (1884 – 1967) ::Samuel Gurney Buxton (1838 - Feb 1909) ::Edward North Buxton (1840 -1924) ::Henry Edmund Buxton (1844 – 1905) ::Charles Louis Buxton (1846 – 1906) ::Francis William Buxton (1847 – 1911) Thomas Fowell Buxton (1822 – 1908) Married Rachel Gurney::John Henry Buxton (1849 – 1934) ) - Director of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton Brewery, Chairman of the London Hospital::Geoffrey Fowell Buxton (1852 – 1929) - Director of Barclays Bank ::Alfred Fowell Buxton (1854 – 1952) - Chairman of London County Council::Barclay Fowell Buxton (1860 – 1946) - Missionary::::Murray Barclay Buxton (1889 – 1940) ::::Alfred Barclay Buxton (1891 – 1940) ::::George Barclay Buxton (1892 – 1917) ::::BarclayGodfrey Buxton (1895 – 1986)Charles Buxton (1823 – 1871) married Emily Mary Holland ::Bertram Henry Buxton (1852 – 1934) ::Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton (1853 – 1934)
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