William Wilberforce was born in 1759 and served in Parliament from 1780 to 1825. A turning point in his religious life was a tour of Europe. In the luggage of a travelling companion he saw a copy of William Law’s book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. He asked his friend, “What is this?” and received the answer, “One of the best books ever written.” The two of them agreed to read it together on the journey, and Wilberforce embarked on a lifelong program of setting aside Sundays and an interval each morning on arising for prayer and religious reading. He considered his options, including the clergy, and was persuaded by Christian friends that his calling was to serve God through politics. He was a major supporter of programs for popular education, overseas missions, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty. He is best known, however, for his untiring commitment to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. He introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of Commons in 1788, in a three-and-a-half hour oration that concluded: “Sir, when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct, what is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!”
The motion was defeated. Wilberforce brought it up again every year for eighteen years, until the slave trade was finally abolished on 25 March 1806. He continued the campaign against slavery itself, and the bill for the abolition of all slavery in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the British West Indies, were set free.
(By James Kiefer)
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, (1801-1885), son of Cropley, 6th earl (a younger brother of the 5th earl; succeeded 1811), and Anne, daughter of the 3rd duke of Marlborough, was born on the 28th of April 1801. He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in classics in 1822, and graduated M.A. in 1832. In 1841 he received from his university the degree of D.C.L. He entered parliament as member for the pocket borough of Woodstock in 1826; in 1830 he was returned for Dorchester; from 1831 till February 1846 he represented the county of Dorset; and he was member for Bath from 1847 till (having previously borne the courtesy title Lord Ashley) he succeeded his father as earl in 1851. Although giving a general. support to the Conservatives, his parliamentary conduct was greatly modified by his intense interest in the improvement of the social condition of the working classes, his efforts in behalf of whom have made his name a household word. He opposed the Reform Bill of 1832, but was a supporter of Catholic emancipation, and his objection to the continuance of resistance to the abolition of the Corn Laws led him to resign his seat for Dorset in 1846. In parliament his name, more than any other, is associated with the new factory legislation. He was a lord of the admiralty under Sir Robert Peel (1834-1835), but on being invited to join Peel’s administration in 1841 refused, having been unable to obtain Peel’s support for the Ten Hours’ Bill. Chiefly by his persistent efforts a Ten Hours’ Bill was carried in 1847, but its operation was impeded by legal difficulties, which were only removed by successive Acts, instigated chiefly by him, until legislation reached a final stage in the Factory Act of 1874. The part which he took in the legislation bearing on coal mines was equally prominent. His efforts in behalf of the welfare of the working classes were guided by personal knowledge. Thus in 1846, after the resignation of his seat for Dorset, he explored the slums of the metropolis, and not only gave a new impulse to the movement for the establishment of ragged schools, but was able to make it more widely beneficial. For forty years he was president of the Ragged School Union. He was also one of the principal founders of reformatory and refuge unions, young men’s Christian associations and working men’s institutes. He took an active interest in foreign missions, and was president of several of the most important philanthropic and religious societies of London. He died on the 1st of October 1885. By his marriage (1830) to Lady Emily (d. 1872), daughter of the 5th earl Cowper, he left a large family, and was succeeded by his eldest son Anthony, who committed suicide in 1886, his son (b. 1869) becoming 9th earl.
(From the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica)