Thomas Fowell Buxton

(1786 - 1845)

Important Quakers

Thomas Fowell Buxton was born in Essex in 1786. His mother was a member of the Society of Friends or Quakers and she introduced him to the important Quaker family, the Gurneys of Norwich. Buxton became a close friend of Joseph Gurney and he began attending meetings of the Society of Friends with the Gurney family. Buxton married Joseph's sister, Hannah, in 1807. Buxton became involved in Quaker campaigns for social reform and he supported his sister-in-law Elizabeth Fry’s campaign for prison reform.

The movement’s new leader

In 1818 Buxton was elected MP for Weymouth. In the House of Commons he worked for reforms in the criminal law and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. After William Wilberforce retired, Buxton carried on the struggle and became leader of the anti-slavery campaign in Parliament. In 1823 Buxton formed the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade. In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act that freed all slaves in the British Empire was passed. In 1838 Buxton published The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy. In this book he told the British government to make treaties with rulers in Africa. The government accepted Buxton's plan and in 1841 an expedition was sent to the Niger River Delta. The plan failed chiefly due to the large number of deaths among the expedition members caused by yellow fever and malaria.