First Fleet & the Abolition Movement

Background

Chronology

1781 – James Ramsay left the West Indies, ‘and by the friendship of Sir Charles Middleton’ relocated to Teston, the Middletons’ estate. (John Knox Laughton (ed.), Letters and Papers of Charles, Lord Barham, 1758-1813, London: Naval Records Society, 1910, Vol.II, p.254)

January 1782 – James Ramsay commenced as Vicar of Teston and Rector of Nettlestead. (James Watt, ‘Surgeon James Ramsay, 1733-1789: the Navy and the Slave Trade’, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (1994) 87, p.774)

6 February 1782 - Sarah Richards, ‘wife of William Richards (a broker)’, was buried at St Mary Woolnoth. (Composite Register, St Mary Woolnoth, London Metropolitan Archives, P69/MRY15/A/001/MS07639) The rector who performed the service was Reverend John Newton, the anti-slavery campaigner and author of the hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’. (Baptisms and burials, St Mary Woolnoth, February 1781. Along with other, her body was later removed to Ilford, presumably for reasons of space. Newton had not married the couple, having moved to the church in January 1780) Newton had written the words to this hymn in late December 1772, but it was only published in July 1779, shortly before he moved to St Mary Woolnoth. However, it would not be until the end of the decade, after he had mentored William Wilberforce, that Newton would publicly declare his Abolitionist sentiments. (Steve Turner, Amazing Grace, Oxford: Lion Hudson plc, 2005, pp.111-121) Nevertheless, from his appointment at St Mary Woolnoth in 1780 (organised by the evangelical merchant, John Thornton), Newton attracted large crowds to the church for his sermons, both on Sunday and during the week. If Richards was at all inclined to an evangelical view of religion, there is no question that he would have attended Newton’s sermons through this period.

Mid-1780s – Blake describes Ramsay as having been Middleton’s ‘confidential secretary’: While Middleton was preoccupied with reforming the Navy Office in the 1780s Ramsay worked alongside him, copying memoranda, editing documents, and occasionally initiating preliminary drafts. (Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008, p.58)

March 1783 – From this time, Middleton’s name appears more often in Wilberforce’s diary as a dining companion. (Anne Stott, Wilberforce: Family and Friends, p.32)

May 1784 – ‘An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies’ was published by John Phillips in George Yard. (General Evening Post, 20-22 May, 1784) This was written at Lady Middleton’s urging. (Stott, p.33) ‘By many accounts, Ramsay’s pamphlet ignited the movement to abolish the trade in African slaves.’ (John E. Talbott, The Pen & Ink Sailor: Charles Middleton and the King’s Navy, 1778-1813, London: Frank Cass, 1998, p.130)

7 to 16 September 1785 – William Richards relocated to George Yard, a small yard off Cornhill, opposite John Phillips’ publishing house.

4 December 1785 – Wilberforce dropped a note at the vestry of St Mary Woolnoth, requesting a meeting with Newton (to discuss his conversion to Christianity) and stressing the importance of discretion. (Turner, p.129)

7 December 1786 – Wilberforce walked around Charles Square, delaying his approach to St Mary Woolnoth. They eventually met and Wilberforce later wrote that he felt much comforted. (Turner, p.129)

10 January 1786 – A meeting was held at Mr Faulder’s to discuss the plight of London’s black poor. This was the foundation of the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. (Stephen J. Braidwood, Black Poor and White Philanthropists, p.63) The chairman and driving force was Jonas Hanway, who has been described as a friend of Middleton’s. (Braidwood, p.81)

April 1786 – Treasury asked the Navy Board to make arrangements for conveying the black poor to Halifax. (Braidwood, p.80)

May 1786 – Government began to pursue Henry Smeathman’s proposal to relocate the black poor to Sierra Leone in Africa. (Braidwood, p.87)

Summer of 1786 – Clarkson was staying at Teston. After a discussion with Ramsay and the Middletons, he decided to give up his ecclesiastical ambitions to concentrate on fighting the slave trade. (William Hague, William Wilberforce, London: HarperPress, 2007, p.139)

July 1786 – Middleton brought together Ramsay, Clarkson, Bishop Porteus of Chester, the Moravian minister Benjamin La Trobe and his son Ignatius at Barham Court at Teston. (Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815, p.67) Granville Sharp was there and several Quaker merchants from the City. (Turner, p.130)

- Clarkson published his Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African.

- After some uncertainty about Sierra Leone, the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor agreed with this destination after a petition from some Africans. (Braidwood, p.98)

1 September 1786 – The advertisement for the First Fleet included a request for tenders for conveying freed blacks to Africa:

“The Principal Officers and Commissioners of his Majesty’s Navy do hereby give Notice, That on Tuesday the 12th of next Month, at One O’clock, they will be ready to treat for about 1,500 Tons of Shipping, by the Ton, to carry Persons and Provisions to Botany Bay on the Coast of New South Wales; and also Ships to carry some Blacks to the Coast of Guinea. Further Particulars may be known at this Office.

“No Letter will be received as a Tender where the Writer, or an Agent for him, does not attend, nor will any be received after Twelve o’clock, the Parties will not be called in on their Tenders; but the lowest will be accepted, and the Writer declared to be the Contractor.” (Morning Herald, 1 & 2 September 1786; Whitehall Evening Post 1, 4 & 8 September)

Early September 1786 – It seems likely that, having heard of the proposal to send convicts to Botany Bay, Reverend Newton and his circle of evangelical colleagues approached Wilberforce, suggesting that a chaplain be appointed.

23 September 1786 – Pitt wrote to Wilberforce approving of his proposal to have a chaplain appointed to Botany Bay. (Neil K. Macintosh, Richard Johnson: Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales, Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1978, p.25)

- The same day, a friend asked Richard Johnson if he would be interested in taking up the chaplaincy. He replied that he had no inclination to leave his mother country. (Macintosh, p.27)

30 September 1786 – Johnson received a written offer of the position at Botany Bay, from another friend (this was Wilberforce). (Macintosh, p.27)

14 October 1786 – Pitt wrote to Wilberforce, acknowledging the latter’s advice that he had found a curate. He would let him know about the stipend etc, and hoped he would be ready immediately. (Macintosh, p.27)

1 November 1786 – John Newton wrote to William Wilberforce:

"I congratulate you on the success of your application in favour of the New Holland settlement, which I hope may be productive of very important and beneficial consequences. The simplicity of Mr Johnson’s views, his integrity and humility, give me a pleasing expectation that the Lord himself has chosen and called him to his service – if so, we may cheerfully expect a happy event." (www.johnnewton.org)

13 March 1787 – Clarkson arranged a dinner at the home of Bennet Langton to ask Wilberforce to spearhead the campaign on Abolition. Also in attendance were Charles Middleton, Isaac Hawkins Brown MP, Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell and William Windham MP.

April 1787 – Three ships left London for Sierra Leone, carrying 411 blacks.

May 1787 – Wilberforce was sitting on a knoll beneath an oak tree at Holwood in Kent (Pitt’s modest country retreat) with Pitt and Grenville, when the Prime Minister suggested he give notice of a motion on the subject of the slave trade. It was this which tipped Wilberforce in favour of his subsequent course of action. (Hague, pp.143-144)

Wilberforce’s sons wrote that it was Lady Middleton who persuaded their father to demand an inquiry into the slave trade. (Stott, p.33)

22 May 1787 - Twelve men met in Phillips’ print shop in George Yard and formed the London Abolition Committee. Four were Quakers. Three were Anglicans – Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson and Philip Sansom. Granville Sharp was elected the first chairman.

February 1788 – Wilberforce fell seriously ill.

1788 – Newton published his ten-thousand word essay, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, the first occasion on which he had come out publicly against the trade. (Turner, p.130)

12 May 1789 – Wilberforce delivered his three and a half hour speech in parliament on abolition.