Anti-Slavery

diocesan links

Within the Hereford Diocese are established ties with both the slave trade and the abolitionist movement. Herefordshire was connected to Sir John Hawkins, “credited” with being responsible for establishing England ’s “Triangle” slave trade. In 1561 Sir John came to Kington, Herefordshire to marry his second wife, Margaret Vaughan. Through his wife’s bequests, the money made from his slaving voyages helped fund the Lady Hawkins School in Kington.

Hereford, too, houses Mochas Court, home to the Cornewall family. This was enlarged by money gained from slaves working on their plantations in the West Indies .

Shropshire has surprising links with the slave trade, through Thomas Goldney II, a Bristol merchant. Goldney was the principal shareholder in a voyage, 1708 to 1711, led by Captain Woodes Rogers. This was extremely successful and it is clear from the Chancery Masters exhibits that slaves were captured and sold in large numbers on the voyage.

Two years later, Goldney provided a large financial investment to Abraham Darby I, allowing him to develop and expand the Coalbrookdale ironworks and after Darby’s death in 1717 he became the principle share-holder.

Whilst there is no indication that the Darby family were aware of how Goldney came by his fortune, the profits made through slavery helped fund the new process of smelting iron with coke instead of charcoal and established the foundry as a leading works in the Industrial Revolution.

However, in England a new dawn of evangelical morality led to many people questioning the ethics of enslavement. In May 1787, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed, influenced by James Ramsay, who had seen the cruelty of the trade at firsthand. Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, and other members of the Clapham Sect of evangelical reformers were among the 12 committee members, most of whom were Quakers.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, moved by Wilberforce, was passed by the British Parliament on March 25, 1807. The act imposed a fine of £100 for every slave found aboard a British ship. In 1827, Britain declared that participation in the slave trade was piracy and punishable by death.