Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, politician, philanthropist and slave
trade abolitionist, was born on 1 April 1786, eldest son of
Thomas and Anna (Hanbury). He was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin and in 1807 married Hannah Gurney (d.1872), who came from
a Quaker family. He interested himself in prison and legal
reforms and was a member of the African Institution and Vice
President of the Anti-Slavery Society, as well as a benefactor to
the RSPCA. Sir Thomas was made a baronet and died in Norfolk on
19 February 1845. He is buried at Overstrand church. His son
Edward (1812-58) succeeded to the title and another son Charles
(1822-71) became a politician. Charles erected a memorial
fountain for his father in the gardens adjoining the Houses of
Parliament.
A seated statue, by sculptor Frederick Thrupp, was erected in
the north choir aisle of the Abbey, near William Wilberforce's
monument. The inscription reads:
"To the memory of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., born
April 1. 1786, died February 19.1845. Endued with a vigorous and
capacious mind, of dauntless courage and untiring energy, he was
early led by the love of God to devote his powers to the good of
Man. In Parliament he laboured for the improvement of prison
discipline, for the amendment of the criminal code, for the
suppression of suttees in India, for the liberation of the
Hottentots in southern Africa, and above all, for the
emancipation of eight hundred thousand slaves in the British
Dominions. In this last righteous enterprize, after ten years of
arduous conflict, a final victory was given to him and his
co-adjutors, "By the good hand of our God" on the memorable 1st
of August 1834. The energies of his mind were afterwards
concentrated on a great attempt to extinguish the slave trade in
Africa, by the substitution of agriculture and commerce, and by
the civilizing influence of the Gospel. Exhausted in mind and
body, "He fell asleep" reposing in faith on his Redeemer, in the
59th year of his age. This monument is erected by his friends and
fellow labourers at home and abroad; assisted by the grateful
contributions of many thousands of the African race."
A photograph of the statue can be purchased from Westminster
Abbey Library.
Further reading:
Charles Buxton "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton", 1848.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.