Stephen Tomkins - The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforces Circle Transformed Britain

First Generation

John BERRIDGE vicar of Everton; friend of John Thornton

William BULL Independent minister of Newport Pagnell; friend of John Thornton

William Legge, Lord DARTMOUTH supporter of George Whitefield, John Newton, and Henry Venn

Selina Hastings, Lady HUNTINGDON supporter of George Whitefield and Henry Venn

Martin MADAN chaplain of the Lock Hospital, influential on John Thorntons conversion

John NEWTON curate of Olney, rector of St Mary Woolnoth; paid and published by John Thornton

Thomas SCOTT curate of Olney, chaplain of the Lock Hospital, rector of Aston Sandford; converted by Henry Venn and John Newton; favourite preacher of the Clapham sect; Church Missionary Society (CMS) secretary and tutor

John THORNTON son of Robert, husband of Lucy, father of Henry; forefather of the Clapham sect

Lucy THORNTON wife of John, mother of Henry

Eling VENN wife of Henry, mother of John

Henry VENN husband of Eling, father of John; curate of Clapham, rector of Huddersfield and Yelling

Elizabeth WILBERFORCE mother of William and Sarah

Hannah WILBERFORCE, ne Thornton sister of John, aunt of William Wilberforce

Second Generation

Jean BABINGTON, ne MACAULAY sister of Zachary, wife of Thomas, mother of Tom

Thomas BABINGTON husband of Jean, father of Tom; owner of Rothley Temple; abolitionist; MP

Thomas Fowell BUXTON father of Priscilla; Wilberforces chosen successor; abolitionist; MP

John CLARKSON Thomass brother; naval lieutenant; governor of Sierra Leone

Thomas CLARKSON Johns brother; founding member of Abolition Society, director of Sierra Leone Society and African Institution

William DAWES astronomer and engineer at Botany Bay; governor of Sierra Leone

Edward ELIOT Pitts brother-in-law; lived in Broomfield on Thorntons estate; founding member of Bettering Society; MP

Mary GISBORNE, ne BABINGTON sister of Thomas, wife of Thomas

Thomas GISBORNE husband of Mary; poet and moral philosopher

Charles GRANT father of Charles and Robert; chairman of the East India Company; MP; lived in Glenelg on Thorntons estate

Selina MACAULAY, ne MILLS wife of Zachary, mother of Tom; pupil, employee, and friend of the More sisters

Zachary MACAULAY husband of Selina, father of Tom, brother of Jean Babington; governor of Sierra Leone; editor of Christian Observer and Anti-Slavery Reporter ; merchant

Selina MILLS see MACAULAY

Hannah MORE sister of Patty; founder and manager of schools; writer

Martha (Patty) MORE sister of Hannah; founder and manager of schools

Granville SHARP chairman of Abolition Society, founder of Province of Freedom, director of Sierra Leone Society and African Institution

James STEPHEN husband of Nancy, then Sarah, father of George and James; abolitionist lawyer and writer; MP

Nancy (Anna) STEPHEN first wife of James, mother of George and James

Sarah STEPHEN see WILBERFORCE

Marianne SYKES see THORNTON

John Shore, Lord TEIGNMOUTH governor-general of British India; president of Bible Society

William Perronet THOMPSON governor of Sierra Leone; general; MP

Henry THORNTON son of John and Lucy, brother of Robert and Samuel, husband of Marianne, father of Marianne and Henry; banker and economist; owner of Battersea Rise; chairman of Sierra Leone Company; MP

Marianne THORNTON, ne SYKES wife of Henry, mother of Marianne and Henry

Robert THORNTON brother of Henry; MP

Samuel THORNTON brother of Henry; MP

John VENN son of Henry and Eling, father of Henry and Jane; rector of Little Dunham and Clapham; founding member of CMS

Kitty VENN, ne KING wife of John, mother of Henry and Jane

Barbara WILBERFORCE ne SPOONER wife of William, mother of William, Samuel, Robert and Henry

William WILBERFORCE son of Elizabeth, nephew of Hannah, brother of Sarah, father of William, Samuel, Robert, and Henry; abolitionist, etc., etc.; MP

Sarah WILBERFORCE, later CLARKE, then STEPHEN sister of William, second wife of James Stephen, stepmother of George and James

Third Generation

Thomas Gisborne (Tom) BABINGTON son of Thomas and Jean; business partner of Zachary Macaulay

Priscilla BUXTON daughter of Thomas; abolitionist

Charles GRANT son of Charles, brother of Robert; Baron Glenelg; MP and Secretary of State for the Colonies

Robert GRANT son of Charles, brother of Charles; MP; governor of Bombay

Thomas Babington (Tom) MACAULAY son of Zachary and Selina; historian; poet; MP

George STEPHEN son of James and Nancy, brother of James; solicitor; founder of Agency Committee

James STEPHEN son of James and Nancy, brother of George, husband of Jane, ne Venn; counsel to the Colonial Office, later Under-Secretary

Henry THORNTON son of Henry and Marianne, brother of Marianne

Marianne THORNTON daughter of Henry and Marianne, sister of Henry

Henry VENN son of John and Kitty, brother of Jane; minister; secretary of CMS

Jane VENN, later STEPHEN daughter of John and Kitty, sister of Henry, wife of James

William WILBERFORCE son of William and Barbara; dairyman and debtor

Before breakfast one morning in 1844, Sir James Stephen, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and one of the more influential people in the British Empire, started dictating an article for the Edinburgh Review about his celebrated father and father-in-law and their circle. He thought he remembered one of their more outspoken opponents, Sydney Smith, mocking them in the Review as the Clapham sect and repeatedly referred to this in his article. In fact what Smith had called them was the Clapham church and the patent Christians of Clapham, but Stephen had to get to the office and had no time to check. The editor was struck by the snappy phrase and used it as the title of the piece. And so, by misquotation and editorial headlining, the Clapham sect was created.

This leaves us with several questions about the Clapham sect: what, if anything, that name means; whether there was any such thing; when it existed, and where; and whom it involved. It was certainly not a sect in any modern sense of the word all of its members were devoted sons and daughters of the Church of England. It was not an organization at all: the people we are talking about had an insatiable passion for forming societies and committees, but the Clapham sect was not one of them. Had they not been named by Stephen, it is unlikely that they would be remembered as anything more concrete than the various friends of William Wilberforce. What Stephen meant by sect was simply a group of friends who shared a particular religious outlook, in this case evangelical Anglican activism, but even then not all the people he lists as members of the circle were evangelicals, or even Anglicans. As for the Clapham part, half of the people Stephen lists never lived in the village or anywhere near it. Those who did overlapped for a relatively short period in which only some of the work for which they were famous was completed.