Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet (7 April 1786 – 19 February 1845) was an English Member 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 a Quaker (member of the Religious Society of Friends). Through the influence of his mother, Buxton became a close friend of Joseph 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 Northrepps Hall in Norfolk.[1]
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In 1808, Buxton's Hanbury family connections led to an appointment to work at the brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, in Brick 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 in Newgate.
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 the abolition of slavery, in which he was helped by his sister-in-law Louisa Gurney Hoare.[2] He also opposed capital 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.
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 the British House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired in 1825. His efforts paid off in 1833 when slavery was officially abolished in the British Empire. Buxton held his seat in Parliament until 1837.
In 1839 Buxton urged the British government to make treaties with African leaders to abolish the slave trade. They sent a team (not including Buxton) to the Niger 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 the African 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 in Westminster Abbey, and a memorial to the emancipation of slaves and dedicated to Buxton in Victoria Tower Gardens (commissioned by his son Charles Buxton MP, the Buxton Memorial Fountain, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, was initially erected in Parliament Square, but was removed in 1940 and moved to its current location in 1957). Fowell Close in Earlham, Norwich, is named after him.
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 the Isle 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 in Wyke Regis.
There are plans to erect a permanent memorial to Buxton in Weymouth.[4]
Buxton had a number of notable descendants, and the table below is intended to show the relationships between them.
Sir Edward North Buxton, 2nd Baronet (1812–1858): married Catherine Gurney
Thomas Fowell Buxton (1822–1908): Married Rachel Gurney
Charles Buxton (1823–1871): married Emily Mary Holland
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Masterton Ure Christopher Idle Adolphus John Dalrymple |
Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis 1818 – 1837 With: 3-seat constituency until 1832, then 2-seat Masterton Ure, to 1832 Thomas Wallace, 1818–1828; John Gordon, 1826–1832; Edward Sugden, 1828–1831; Richard Weyland, 1831; Charles Baring Wall, 1831–1832; Sir Frederick George Johnstone, 1832–1835; William Wharton Burden, from 1835 |
Succeeded by George Child-Villiers George William Hope |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baronet (of Belfield) 1840–1845 |
Succeeded by Edward North Buxton |