Thomas Gisbourne
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Thomas Gisborne (1758 – 1846) 'the Elder' (to distinguish him from his son, the MP Thomas Gisborne the Younger) was an Anglican priest and one of the Clapham Sect, who fought for the abolition of the slave trade in England. He was a close friend of William Wilberforce and Hannah More.
Born in 1758, Thomas was the son of John Gisborne and Anne Bateman. He was educated at Harrow and entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1776, where he became the first Chancellor's medallist in 1780. He was curate of Barton-under-Needwood, 1783; prebendary of Durham, 1823 and 1826; he married Mary Babington in 1784, his brother-in-law being Thomas Babington.
He wrote about the role of women, particularly in An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex, (1797), where he argued that women's subordinate nature is innate. Whilst he shared the view that women should not conceal their intellectual abilities, and that parents should never force their daughters into marriage, he commended the traditional feminine virtues and the domestic role for women. Law, politics and government, scholarship, philosophy, navigation and war all "demand the efforts of a mind endued with the powers of close and comprehensive reasoning, and of intense and continued application" and are thus best left to men. The concomitant duties of men are set out in his companion volume, An Enquiry Into the Duties of Men in the Higher and Middle Classes of Society in Great Britain (1794). ‘The master of the house’ should ‘not attend the savage spectacle of cockpits and boxing matches; nor engage in the ruinous occupations and infamous society of race-courses and gaming tables’. Instead, he has a responsibility for the moral health and education of wife and children and should ‘join the family circle in the winter’s evening’s perusal of selected portions of history, poetry or other improving and elegant branch of literature’.
[edit] Published works
- Principles of Moral Philosophy, (1789)
- Walks in a Forest, (1794)
- An Enquiry Into the Duties of Men in the Higher and Middle Classes of Society" in Great Britain (1794)
- An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex, (1797)
- A Familiar Survey of the Christian Religion and of History, (1810)
- Sermons Volume 1, (1814)
