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Clapham sect
Clapham sect. An influential evangelical network whose activity in the early 19th cent. found a base in Clapham, where ten of them are commemorated in the parish church. Often attributed to Sydney Smith, the name was popularized and perhaps coined by Sir James Stephen in the Edinburgh Review (1844). The banker Henry Thornton (1760–1815) and his family provided the Clapham core but the ‘sect's’ dominant figure, their kinsman William Wilberforce, also lived there (1797–1808), as did Zachary Macaulay (1768–1838) from 1803 to 1819, Lord Teignmouth (1751–1834) from 1802 to 1818, and John Venn (1759–1813), Clapham's rector from 1797. The original group, ranging from Granville Sharp, the oldest, to Thomas Clarkson, the last survivor, provided some 60 years of public service. Their commercial, legal, and administrative experience took them naturally into Parliament where their humanitarian concerns introduced an unusual but ineradicable note at a time when such reforms were regarded as business for individual members rather than government. Their greatest victories were the abolition of the slave trade (1807) and of slavery itself in the British empire (1833), but their influence was decisive in promoting Christian missions in India and west Africa and in supporting such bodies as the Tract (1799) and Bible (1804) societies at home. Mostly Anglican and significantly Tory, their links with Whigs and dissenters confirm their importance as midwives of humanitarian reform.
Clyde Binfield |
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Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-Claphamsect.html JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-Claphamsect.html |
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Clapham sect
Clapham sect An influential evangelical network whose activity in the early 19th cent. found a base in Clapham. The name was popularized and perhaps coined by Sir James Stephen in the Edinburgh Review (1844). The banker Henry Thornton (1760–1815) provided the Clapham core but the ‘sect's’ dominant figure, their kinsman William Wilberforce, also lived there (1797–1808). The original group, ranging from Granville Sharp, the oldest, to Thomas Clarkson, the last survivor, provided some 60 years of public service. Their greatest victories were the abolition of the slave trade (1807) and of slavery itself in the British empire (1833).
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Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Claphamsect.html JOHN CANNON. "Clapham sect." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Claphamsect.html |
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Clapham Sect
Clapham Sect. An informal group of wealthy Anglican Evangelicals, many of whose members lived near Clapham and worshipped in its parish church. They included J. Venn, Rector of Clapham (1792–1813), Z. Macaulay, and W. Wilberforce. They supported the campaign against the slave-trade, extension of missionary enterprise, the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the establishment of a model colony in Sierra Leone, and the extension of Sunday Schools.
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Cite this article
E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-ClaphamSect.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-ClaphamSect.html |
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Clapham Sect
Clapham Sect, the name given by Sydney Smith to a group of Evangelical and anti-slave-trade philanthropists, centred on Clapham, whose members included Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay (father of T. B. Macaulay), the scholar and pamphleteer Granville Sharp, and the Thornton family, ancestors of E. M. Forster.
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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-ClaphamSect.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Clapham Sect." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-ClaphamSect.html |
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