Edward Backhouse

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Edward Backhouse (1808-1879) was a philanthropist, Quaker minister and writer on church history.

Contents

[edit] Early life

See also: Sunderland Echo

Edward Backhouse was born in Darlington in May 1808, the son of Edward Backhouse of Darlington. When Edward senior moved to Sunderland in 1816, his family travelled with him. Edward junior remained in Sunderland until his death.[1]

[edit] Working life

Backhouse became a partner in the family banking firm of Backhouse & Co, but did not take an active part in the business. Instead, he worked as a minister for the Quaker-run Society of Friends from 1854 and was also active in establishing the Sunderland Indigent Sick Society, the British School in Borough Road, Sunderland, and the old Athenaeum and Reformatories.[2]

[edit] Political life

Backhouse, who held Liberal political views, was a leading supporter of Sunderland Informary, and of temperance work. At the time of his death in 1879, he was President of the Sunderland Temperance Society and treasurer of the Bible Society. He was also a prominent opponent of the Contagious Diseases Acts, serving as President of the Northern Counties Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.[3]

The political views of Backhouse were shared by Samuel Storey and other leading local politicians of the day. His political opinions eventually led Backhouse to become one of the original seven founders of the Radical-run Sunderland Echo in 1873.[4]

[edit] Personal life

Backhouse married Katherine Mounsey in 1855. The couple had no children. He died in Hastings, where he had gone for his health, on May 22, 1879. The work Backhouse carried out on church history was published posthumously.[5][6]

[edit] Works

  • Early Church History to the Death of Constantine, 1884

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: May 29, 1879
  2. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: May 28, 1879
  3. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: May 29, 1879
  4. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: May 28, 1879
  5. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: May 29, 1879
  6. ^ Sunderland Daily Echo: December 19, 1879 - will
  • Leslie Stephen, ‘Backhouse, Edward (1808–1879)’, rev. K. D. Reynolds, * Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 23 Dec 2007
  • Sunderland Daily Echo: May 29, 1879 - obituary
  • Sunderland Daily Echo: May 28, 1879 - funeral
  • Sunderland Daily Echo: December 19, 1879 - will