It was a meeting of minds with Thomas Fowell Buxton presented as himself in this costumed talk by Dr. Rob Knee. Thomas born in 1786 at Castle Hedingham in Essex, his father died young, his mother was a Quaker. Sent away to school, Thomas endured an unhappy time. Back at home a Game Keeper, by the name of Abraham, befriended Thomas giving him the encouragement to learn all he could. He completed his education at Trinity College Dublin in 1807. During Thomas’s teenage years, with his mother’s influence, he became involved with the Gurney family at Earlham Hall, who were Quakers, he went on to marry Hannah Gurney in 1807. The following year Thomas was offered a job with the Brewery owned by his uncle in Brick Lane, Spitalfields.
Thomas attended Quaker meetings and became involved in the social reform movement helping to raise funds to improve the lives of the weavers of London, and also supporting Elizabeth Fry, his Sister-in-law, joining her association the Female Prisoners in Newgate.
Becoming an MP in 1818, Thomas was elected to Parliament and worked for changes in criminal law, for the abolition of slavery and for capital punishment to be abolished, which he never accomplished. He worked to restrict crimes for which capital punishment could be meted, this number fell from over two hundred to just eight.
Thomas Buxton’s greatest achievement came when he was invited to take over as leader of the abolition movement from William Wilberforce who retired in 1825. He presented a petition to the Commons with 187,000 signatures against slavery. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended Slavery in the British Empire, except Ceylon and India. In 1839 Thomas encouraged the Government to negotiate treaties with African leaders to completely abolish the slave trade. In 1841 the Niger expedition, which did not include Thomas, put together by the missionary organisations who were working on trade, reached the Niger Delta and began negotiations. Unfortunately, heavy losses due to fevers cut short the expedition in 1841.
Thomas Buxton was created a baronet in 1840, it is said he never recovered from the disappointment from the failed mission to Africa, he died in 1845 at his home Northrepps Hall and is buried at Overstrand. A monument to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton stands in Westminster Abbey. Thomas and Hannah had eight children. Unfortunately, four died of whooping cough over a five-week period and another died sometime later.
The family’s links with Norfolk were and are still very strong. In 1855 Hannah frequently sent boxes of toys to the missionary Anna Hinderer in Nigeria, ten years later their grandchildren were parcelling them up. This of course, is Martham’s link as the Hinderers lived in the Vicarage and Anna is buried in St. Mary’s churchyard.
I can only give you a brief outline of this incredible man, his life, his achievements, his family and his legacy which touched all of us during a cold January evening.