A litter of cupolas - Brighton Pavilion in 1823

Today’s post is a first for Regency History. I have just made my very first YouTube video!

I recently gave a speech at my local Toastmasters’ group about one of my favourite Regency buildings – the Brighton Pavilion. I called it: “A litter of cupolas”.

The title comes from a quote by William Wilberforce about the Brighton Pavilion:

“It looks very much as if St Paul’s had come down to the sea and left behind a litter of cupolas!”

St. Paul's from D Hughson's London (1806) and Brighton Pavilion

A cupola is a dome. As I am sure you know, a litter refers to the multiple offspring of an animal born at one time e.g. a litter of puppies. So a litter of cupolas is a number of little domes. A very witty description of Brighton Pavilion!

My speech transports the listener back in time to experience the Pavilion in its heyday. I recorded my speech and illustrated it with pictures in PowerPoint and then converted it into a YouTube video.

I hope you enjoy it. Please let me have your feedback. This is my first attempt and I am anxious to improve.

Read more about George IV and Brighton Pavilion.

Sources used include:
Feltham, John, A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places (1815)
Hughson, David, London; being an accurate history and description of the British Metropolis and its neighbourhood Volume IV (1806, London)
Moule, Thomas, Great Britain Illustrated, a series of original views (1830)
Nash, John, Views of the Royal Pavilion with commentary by Gervase Jackson-Stops (1991)
Wilberforce, Robert, Isaac and Samuel, The Life of William Wilberforce (John Murray, 1839)

British Museum website
Photographs by Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

What did Regency visitors think of the Brighton Pavilion?

A fairytale palace

Brighton Pavilion from the gardens

Brighton Pavilion is a fairytale palace – a bizarre mixture of domes and minarets, fitted out internally in luxurious but eccentric style. You cannot help but marvel at the unconventional architecture and the sumptuous decoration, but it is not to everyone’s taste. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Pavilion last week and see the exhibition on Princess Charlotte. The audio commentary reminded me that, when it was built, the Pavilion was far from universally admired.

 A litter of cupolas

Brighton Pavilion from the Steyne

“The Pavilion in Chinese style – beautiful and tasty,” wrote William Wilberforce, “though it looks very much as if St Paul’s had come down to the sea and left behind a litter of cupolas”.

Sydney Smith agreed: “It looks as if St Paul’s Cathedral has come down to Brighton and pupped.” These quotes are so similar that it seems likely that one was derived from the other.

Turnips and bulbs

William Cobbett claimed that the Pavilion, which he nicknamed the Kremlin, had “long been a subject of laughter all over the country”. He described the Pavilion in very unflattering terms, no doubt strongly influenced by his disgust at the Prince Regent’s extravagance in rebuilding it:

Brighton Pavilion- the entrance

“Take a square box, the sides of which are three feet and a half, and the height a foot and a half. Take a large Norfolk turnip, cut off the green of the leaves, leave the stalks nine inches long, tie these round with a string three inches from the top, and put the turnip on the middle of the box. Then take four turnips of half the size, threat them in the same way, and put them on the corners of the box. Then take a considerable number of bulbs of the crown imperial, the narcissus, the hyacinth, the tulip, the crocus, and others; let the leaves of each have sprouted to about an inch, more or less according to the size of the bulb; put all these, pretty promiscuously, but pretty thickly, on the top of the box. Then stand off and look at your architecture. There! That’s ‘a Kremlin’!”

Pumpkins and pepper boxes

William Hazlitt was similarly unimpressed:
“The Pavilion at Brighton is like a collection of stone pumpkins and pepper boxes. It seems as if the genius of architecture had at once the dropsy and the megrims. Anything more fantastical, with a greater dearth of invention, was never seen.”

The skyline at Brighton Pavilion

The Folly at Brighton

Another less than flattering reference to the Pavilion and its owner was in The Joss and His Folly, a poem illustrated by George Cruikshank. The verses were written by William Hone and appeared in an 1820 pamphlet, The Queen’s Matrimonial Ladder, which accompanied a “national toy”. The first four verses refer to “The Folly at Brighton”:

The Joss and His Folly by George Cruikshank

From The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder
by William Hone (1820)

The queerest of all the queer sights
I’ve set sights on;
Is the what d’ye call’t thing, here,
The Folly at Brighton

The outside – huge teapots,
All drill’d round with holes,
Relieved by extinguishers,
Sticking on poles;

The inside – all tea-things,
And dragons, and bells,
The show-rooms – all show,
The sleeping rooms – cells.

But the grand Curiosity’s
Not to be seen –
The owner himself –
An old fat Mandarin.

A Regency icon

I like Brighton Pavilion. To me, it sums up George IV so beautifully. It is a vivid statement of his lifestyle – extravagant, inconsistent and hedonistic. He was continually redecorating and rebuilding, filling his palace with beautiful things and entertaining lavishly. And yet when it was finished, he decided its situation was too public, and soon after, he abandoned it for the privacy of Windsor. Yes, it is over the top and I am not a big fan of all the dragons and snakes, but I am so glad that the palace has been preserved as a lasting symbol of the Regency.

Sources used include:
Cobbett, William, Rural rides in the counties of Surrey, Kent etc during the years 1821 to 1832, ed Pitt Cobbett (1893)
Low, Donald A, That Sunny Dome - a portrait of Regency Britain (Book Club Associates, 1977)
Feltham, John, A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places (1815)
Hazlitt, William, Notes of a journey through France and Italy (1826)
Hone, William, The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder (1820)
Morley, John, The Royal Pavilion, Brighton
Nash, John, Views of the Royal Pavilion with commentary by Gervase Jackson-Stops (1991)
Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel, The Life of William Wilberforce (John Murray, 1839)

Photographs by Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806)

William Pitt
from Memoirs of George IV by R Huish (1830)

Profile

William Pitt (28 May 1759 - 23 January 1806) was a Tory MP who served as First Lord of the Treasury, effectively prime minister, from 19 December 1783 to 14 March 1801 and again from 10 May 1804 until his death in 1806. He first took on this role aged 24 years and 205 days (1) making him the youngest prime minister to date.

Family and early years

William Pitt was born in Kent on 28 May 1759, the second son of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and Lady Hester Granville. He was designated 'Pitt the Younger' to distinguish him from his father who had also served as First Lord of the Treasury.

From an early age, he demonstrated a very keen, able mind and a determination to follow in his father’s footsteps in parliament. He suffered from frequent bouts of ill health, for which he was prescribed port wine, and so was educated at home by the Reverend Edward Wilson. He went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in April 1773, at the early age of 14.
  
Cambridge University

Pembroke College, Cambridge
from Memorials of Cambridge by CH Cooper (1829)

At Cambridge, he pursued his love of the classics and mathematics and developed his debating skills. He socialised little outside the university grounds, where he had a small group of friends including his tutor, George Pretyman, and William Wilberforce.

Because of his ill health, he used his right as the son of a nobleman to graduate without taking exams. He continued to reside at the college until financial necessity forced him to take up a profession after the death of his father.

In 1780, Pitt was called to the bar and joined the western circuit as a barrister. He witnessed the Gordon Riots from his rooms in Lincolns Inn.

William Pitt the Younger
from Posthumous Memoirs of his own time
by N Wraxall (1836)

Pitt enters politics

In the general election of 1780, Pitt stood as a candidate for Cambridge University but was returned at the bottom of the poll. However, in a by-election the following January, he was elected to the borough of Appleby through the influence of the Duke of Rutland.

On 26 February 1781, Pitt gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons. According to Debrett, his voice was “rich and striking, full of melody and force; his manner easy and elegant; his language beautiful and luxuriant. He gave in this first essay, a specimen of eloquence, not unworthy the son of his immortal parent” (2).

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Pitt became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Shelburne but declined to take over the government when Shelburne’s ministry failed. The King was forced to ask the Duke of Portland to form a government, backed by a coalition of Fox and North.

Pitt became a member of the opposition, but when the King vehemently opposed the proposed reforms of the East India Company and declared that any who voted in favour would be counted his enemies, his moment had come. The government collapsed and the King offered the leadership to Pitt who was now ready to accept it. In the general election that soon followed, Pitt was elected member for the University of Cambridge and obtained a significant majority.

Pitt’s first ministry (1783-1801)

During Pitt's ministry he took steps to reduce the national debt, reformed the administration of the East India Company and the collection of excise duties, introduced the first income tax and supported the abolition of slavery. Pitt’s leadership was threatened by the Regency crisis of 1788 when it looked like the Prince of Wales would be made Regent and his friend Fox would come into power, but the King recovered.

Charles James Fox
from Memoirs of George IV by R Huish (1830)

After the French Revolution, there was the threat of rebellion in Ireland and renewed war with France. Pitt saw the Act of Union as the solution to the Irish problem, but when he proposed to allow Irish Catholics into Parliament, the King was outraged and on 3 February 1801, Pitt resigned, returning the seals of office on 14 March, and Henry Addington took over.

Pitt’s second ministry (1804-1806)

When Addington resigned in April 1804, Pitt was again asked to form a government. Pitt wanted to include Fox and Grenville in his cabinet, but the King refused to accept Fox, and Grenville refused to serve without him, and so Pitt was forced to manage without either of these talented men. Pitt struggled continually to hold the government together under the strains of war and the impeachment of the corrupt Lord Melville.
  

Pitt's house in Bath in 1802

The private life of Pitt

Pitt was a man with few vices. Lord Macaulay wrote: “The correctness of his private life added much to the dignity of his public character.”(3) He drank port heavily, but was rarely drunk. He had a strong inclination towards gambling, but had the prudence and resolution of character to prevent his taste for play from becoming a habit. Though unmarried, he did not keep a mistress. His niece Hester Lucy Stanhope lived with him for the last three years of his life.

Married to his career

Only once did Pitt consider marriage – to Eleanor Eden, eldest daughter of Lord Auckland – but whilst expressing great affection for her in a letter to her father, he stated that circumstances made marriage impossible. There was some speculation that he was homosexual, but his lack of involvement with women may simply have resulted from shyness coupled with ill health and a busy life committed to politics.

An affectionate friend

Pitt had few friends but in the small circle of his intimate associations, he was amicable, affectionate, even playful. He frequently stayed at Wilberforce's house in Wimbledon and accompanied him to the continent in the summer of 1783.

William Wilberforce
from The Life of William Wilberforce
by Robert and Samuel Wilberforce (1839)

He did not patronise the arts and rarely went into society, especially after the outbreak of war in 1793. He spent time at his home in Holwood, Kent, where he enjoyed improving the grounds and farming sheep and also at Walmer Castle, which he had held as warden of the Cinque Ports since 1792.

Walmer Castle, Kent
from England's Topographer or a new and complete history
of the county of Kent by WH Ireland (1829)

Pitt in debt

Although neither a gambler nor a family man, Pitt was extravagant and somewhat careless with the generous income that he received whilst in power. By the time he died, he had amassed debts of £40,000, which the House of Commons obligingly voted money to satisfy.

Illness and death

The strain of government took its toll on Pitt’s health. He visited Bath in December 1805 but was no better when he returned to his villa in Putney in January. Pitt died on 23 January 1806. He was given a state funeral on 22 February and buried in Westminster Abbey near his father.

Notes
(1) From the Gov.uk website (see link below).
(2) From The Parliamentary Register or History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons - 26 February 1781 - edited by Debrett.
(3) From Lord Macaulay's The Life of William Pitt (1859)

Sources used include:
Debrett (ed), The Parliamentary Register or History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons during the first session of the Fifteenth Parliament of Great Britain (1781)
Ehman, JPW and Smith, Anthony, Pitt, William (1759-1806) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn May 2009, accessed 20 July 2012)
Huish, Robert, Memoirs of George IV (Thomas Kelly, 1830, 1831, London)
Ireland, William Henry, England's Topographer or a new and complete history of the county of Kent (G Virtue, 1829, London)
Macaulay, Lord, The Life of William Pitt (The Riverside Press, 1859, Cambridge)
Pollock, John, Wilberforce (Constable, 1977; Kingsway, 2007, Eastbourne)
Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel William, Posthumous Memoirs of his own time (1836)

History of Parliament online: William Pitt
Gov.uk website: past prime ministers

All photographs © Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

Hannah More (1745-1833)

Hannah More
from Memoirs of the life and correspondence 
of Mrs Hannah More by William Roberts (1835)

Profile

Hannah More (2 February 1745 - 7 September 1833) was a bluestocking writer whose moral works were highly influential in her time. She was an evangelical Christian and friend of William Wilberforce and supported the anti-slavery campaign.

Early life and education

Hannah More was born on 2 February 1745 in Stapleton, Gloucestershire. She was the fourth daughter of Jacob More, a Norfolk gentleman who was superintendent of a grammar school in Stapleton.

Hannah and her four sisters were educated at home by their parents. From an early age, Hannah displayed an aptitude for learning that was encouraged by her father who taught her classics and mathematics. She scribbled down stories and verses on scraps of paper as soon as she could write and read them aloud to amuse her youngest sister, Patty.

The Bristol school

More intended his daughters to run their own school and, with this in mind, he sent his eldest daughter to a French school in Bristol. Every week, Mary taught her sisters what she had learnt. The eldest sisters opened a boarding school in Bristol when Hannah was twelve and she was able to benefit from the visiting masters in modern languages and Latin, although her father prevented her from pursuing mathematics further as he did not approve of women’s learning in this field. When she was old enough, Hannah became a teacher at the school.

Hannah’s first serious work, a pastoral drama expressing her views on women’s education called The Search after Happiness, was published in Bristol in 1762 and performed at the school.

Unfulfilled promises and financial independence

In 1767, Hannah received the addresses of William Turner, a man of integrity and fortune, twenty years her senior. Hannah accepted his proposal, but Turner kept on putting off their wedding until, at last, the engagement was broken off by mutual agreement. Turner was anxious to make reparation for Hannah’s disappointed prospects and offered to pay her an annuity in compensation. Although initially she refused, Hannah was eventually persuaded to accept an annuity of £200 through a trust and Turner left her £1000 in his will.

The Bluestockings

In 1773, Hannah went to London, where she was introduced to the Garricks, Elizabeth Montagu, Joshua Reynolds, Dr Johnson and the politician Edmund Burke, through the recommendation of her friend and theological mentor, Reverend James Stonhouse.

David Garrick
from The Life of David Garrick
by Percy Fitzgerald (1868)

When she visited London again in 1775, she was invited to Elizabeth Montagu’s house for a literary gathering – a bluestocking party. Her reputation was quickly established and she formed lasting friendships with a number of the bluestocking circle, Dr Johnson, Elizabeth Montagu, Frances Boscawen, Hester Chapone, Elizabeth Carter and Elizabeth Vesey.

Hannah’s poem, The Bas Bleu or Conversation was written in 1782, in praise of good conversation and she was depicted as one of the nine living muses in a group portrait by Richard Samuel in 1778.

Hannah the dramatist

Hannah’s financial independence enabled her to devote her time to writing. Encouraged by her close friend Garrick, she wrote two plays, The Inflexible Captive (1775) and a tragedy, Percy (1777), both of which were received with much acclaim. A third play, The Fatal Falsehood (1779), however, was a dismal failure, and this, coupled with the death of Garrick, led to a change in direction in her writings.

The Importance of Manners

After Garrick’s death, Hannah became increasingly evangelical in her outlook, influenced by her friends, Lady Middleton and Bishop Porteus. She wrote Sacred Dramas in 1782 and then, in 1788, issued Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society anonymously. The book dwelt on the need to reform the rich in order to help the poor. Some thought that it was written by her evangelical friend, Wilberforce. Both the Importance of Manners and its sequel, An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, were enthusiastically received by the very people that they criticised.

William Wilberforce
from The Life of William Wilberforce
by Robert and Samuel Wilberforce (1839)

Political and moral motivation

Hannah supported and encouraged Wilberforce in both his campaign for moral regeneration and his anti-slavery campaign. She wrote a large number of moral and anti-revolutionary tracts including Village Politics and Cheap Repository Tracts, and a novel, Cœlebs in Search of a Wife (1808).

She also wrote Strictures on Female Education (1799) and Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess (1805), which the Bishop of Exeter gave to the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Princess Charlotte of Wales
- for whom More's Hints (1805) were written
from La Belle Assemblée (1816)

Controversial moments

Hannah’s life was not without controversy. In 1784, she sought to promote the work of a milk woman whom she had discovered to have literary abilities. In an attempt to save her from squandering her new-found wealth, the principal was invested; the woman grew bitter and caused Hannah considerable grief before forced to hand the matter over to her solicitor.

Hannah More's home in Bath
76 Great Pulteney Street

Later, having retired from the management of the Bristol school, Hannah lived in Bath and at her home, Cowslip Green, near Bristol. The poverty she witnessed in the surrounding area prompted her to establish a school for the poor. But not without opposition from the farmers who did not want an educated workforce and the curate of Blagdon who sought to discredit the Cheddar school.

Plaque outside Hannah More's home in Bath

A woman of influence

Hannah More was a woman of great influence. She was friends with Mrs Delaney and with Lady de Clifford and Lady Charlotte Finch, governesses to the royal family. She visited the Duchess of Gloucester and Hannah's work was much admired by her children, Prince William and Princess Sophia. She corresponded with Horace Walpole and the ex-slave trader John Newton and was close friends with William Wilberforce, dubbing his Clapham home, Noah’s Ark. Through her writings, which were immensely popular, she was able to exert an influence for good on the rich and poor alike.

Ill health and death

Hannah More’s health was never robust and she had to endure the sadness of all her beloved sisters dying before her. In 1828 she moved to Clifton, Bristol, where she died on 7 September 1833, aged 88 years.

Sources used include:

Anon, The Great and the Good (Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1855, London)

Pollock, John, Wilberforce (Constable, 1977; Kingsway, 2007, Eastbourne)

Roberts, William, Memoirs of the life and correspondence of Mrs Hannah More (Harper & brothers, 1835, New York)

Skedd, SJ, More, Hannah (1745-1833) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn May 2009, accessed 7 June 2012)

 Photographs © Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade

William Wilberforce
from The Great and Good (1855)

Wilberforce in Parliament

Wilberforce’s political career started in September 1780 when he was elected MP for Hull at the age of twenty-one, having spent £8000 ‘buying’ supporters at the going rate of two guineas a vote, as was the custom at the time. Four years later, he was elected one of the MPs representing the County of York, a prestigious but demanding role from which he resigned in 1812 due to ill health. He then became an MP for the pocket borough of Bramber in Sussex. This enabled him to stay in the Commons but was less taxing on his health and allowed him to spend more time with his family.

The independent politician

Wilberforce’s private resources allowed him to be independent of any political party as he did not need to seek a paying public office. He was a passionate speaker and was able to captivate the house whenever he spoke. His earliest recorded speeches were on smuggling and naval shipbuilding – things close to the heart of his Hull constituents – but it was not until he took up the anti-slavery cause that his political contribution became significant.

The abolitionist cause

After his conversion to evangelical Christianity, Sir Charles and Lady Middleton and Thomas Clarkson urged Wilberforce to take up the plight of slaves in Parliament. After a pivotal discussion with William Grenville and William Pitt the Younger under an oak tree at Holwood in Kent – later known as the “Wilberforce oak” – Wilberforce became fully committed to the cause and thereafter sought the abolition of the slave trade.

Wilberforce launched his campaign for the abolition of slavery on 12 May 1789 and continually brought the matter before Parliament despite repeated disappointment and opposition. In 1791, he helped his friend, Henry Thornton, to establish the Sierra Leone Company to resettle former slaves and promote legitimate trade and on 31 January 1807, his book, A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was published. Finally, Wilberforce’s perseverance was rewarded and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act received royal assent on 25 March 1807.

But Wilberforce’s efforts did not stop there. The Anti-Slavery society was created in 1823 and, for the rest of his life, he worked towards the total abolition of slavery.

The Clapham Sect

During the 1790s and 1800s, Wilberforce was a leading member of the group of evangelical Christians known as the Clapham Sect, so named because of their location around the green at Clapham. These included Henry Thornton, Edward Eliot, Charles Grant, Zachary Macaulay, John Shore (Lord Teignmouth), and James Stephen (who married Wilberforce’s sister, Sarah, in 1800).

He was informally recognized as the leader of the group of evangelical ‘Saints’ in Parliament and the second great cause in his life was to promote true Christian values – what he called “the reformation of manners”.

With this in mind, Wilberforce successfully urged George III to issue a proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue on 1 June 1787 and in April 1797, his work, A practical view of the prevailing religious system of professed Christians in the higher and middle classes of this country contrasted with real Christianity, was published. Although this was unfashionable, it was widely read and influential.

The Queen Caroline Affair

On 6 June 1820, Queen Caroline returned from her exile on the continent, claiming her right to be crowned as Queen, despite the attempts of her adviser, Lord Brougham, to prevent her return to England. The injured Queen became a figurehead for the political unrest that had been made worse by the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819. George IV wanted to put his wife on trial for adultery so that he could divorce her.

Wilberforce feared that in the current state of unrest, such a move could lead to revolution. He proposed that the “Green Bag” debate over the Queen’s alleged adultery be adjourned, giving time for the King and Queen to reach a settlement outside of the courts. The move was enthusiastically taken up and in the process nearly brought the government down.

Wilberforce presented a Motion for an Address to the Queen, and was encouraged by Lord Brougham to believe that the Queen would accept the omission of her name from the liturgy. The Queen refused. The failure of Wilberforce’s attempts at mediation led to the trial of Queen Caroline and subsequent exclusion from the coronation ceremony.

Princess Caroline of Brunswick
from Huish's Memoirs of her late
 royal highness Charlotte Augusta (1818) 

Wilberforce’s legacy

Wilberforce resigned from politics in 1825 due to ill health and died on 29 July 1833, three days after the Abolition of Slavery Bill had passed its third hearing in the House of Commons. It came into force the following year. Wilberforce was honoured by members of both Houses and buried in Westminster Abbey. He will always be remembered for his perseverance in the struggle against slavery.

Read more about the rest of Wilberforce's life
 
Sources used include:
Cooper, Charles Henry, Memorials of Cambridge (1861, William Metcalfe)
Huish, Robert, Memoirs of George IV (1830, Thomas Kelly) 
Pollock, John, Wilberforce (1977, Constable)
Price, Thomas, Memoir of William Wilberforce (1836, Light & Stearns, Boston)
Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, The Great and Good ( 1855, Seeley, Jackson & Halliday)
Vizetelly & Branston, The Georgian Era (1832, Vizetelly, Branston & Co.)
Weale, John, The Pictorial Handbook of London (1854, Henry G Bohn)
Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel, The Life of William Wilberforce (1839, John Murray)

William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

William Wilberforce
from The Life of William Wilberforce
by Robert and Samuel Wilberforce (1839)

Profile

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 - 29 July 1833) was a highly influential politician who was instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade.

Family background

 

William Wilberforce was born in Hull on 24 August 1759, the only son of Robert Wilberforce and Elizabeth Bird. His father was a merchant, as was his grandfather, who had amassed considerable wealth through trade with the Baltic.

When his father died prematurely in 1768, Wilberforce was sent to London to live with his aunt and uncle, William and Hannah Wilberforce. However, when his grandfather and mother realised that he was being influenced by Hannah’s Methodist beliefs, Wilberforce was taken back to Hull, where his predilection for evangelicalism was temporarily quashed.

Friendship with Pitt

St John's College, Cambridge
from Memorials of Cambridge
by Charles Henry Cooper (1861)

Wilberforce went up to St John’s College, Cambridge in October 1776 where he obtained a BA in 1781 and an MA in 1788. Whilst at Cambridge, he became friends with William Pitt the younger, who was also intent upon a career in politics. Wilberforce entered Parliament in 1780, just a few months before Pitt, who entered the following January.

William Pitt
from Memoirs of George IV
by Robert Huish (1831)

Pitt often stayed at Wilberforce’s house in Wimbledon. They were members of the same clubs, in particular, Goostree’s, a Pall Mall club where around twenty-five Cambridge contemporaries, whom Wilberforce referred to as “The Gang”, met regularly. Pitt and Wilberforce travelled together to France in the autumn of 1783 with another friend, Edward Eliot. Their relationship was strained from time to time by political differences, but they remained friends until Pitt’s death in 1806.

Conversion

In 1785, after travelling extensively with Isaac Milner, later Dean of Carlisle, Wilberforce had a Christian conversion experience. He considered giving up politics, but was persuaded not to by the urging of both his good friend, Pitt, and the evangelical ex-slave master, John Newton. Wilberforce demonstrated an ability to combine spiritual earnestness with charm and tact whilst his Christian principles gave him integrity and perseverance.

What was Wilberforce like?

Wilberforce was known to his friends as Wilber; none of his friends called him William. He was short in stature and, in later years, he developed a curvature of the spine which caused him to become bent over. Although he suffered from weak eyes, he did not wear spectacles; as a man of fashion, he used only an eye-glass on a riband. His conversation was witty and he had a good singing voice. However, he was not a good time keeper, was inclined to be lazy, and gained a reputation for being the noisiest member in the House.

William Wilberforce aged 20
from The Life of William Wilberforce
by RI & S Wilberforce (1839)

Marriage and family life

On 15 April 1797, whilst in Bath, Wilberforce met Barbara Ann Spooner, the daughter of a Birmingham banker. He proposed within a fortnight and the couple were married at Walcot Church in Bath on 30 May. Wilberforce was a devoted husband and father to his six children: William (1798), Barbara (1799), Elizabeth (1801), Robert (1802), Samuel (1805), and Henry (1807). Sadly, both his daughters died before him and his eldest son caused him much grief and financial loss. The younger sons, however, took orders, which delighted their father.

Ill health and opium

Wilberforce suffered from ill health throughout much of his life and often travelled to Bath to recuperate. He was prone to stress-related illness, probably ulcerative colitis, and to combat a bout of this illness in February 1788, he started to use opium; he regularly used this to combat his intestinal disorders for the rest of his life.

A fitting farewell

Following a further period of illness, Wilberforce resigned from politics in 1825. He died in London on 29 July 1833. Such was the esteem in which Wilberforce was held that, despite his own desire for a quiet funeral, many eminent persons requested permission from his family for him to be buried at Westminster Abbey.

The funeral was held on 3 August, attended by thousands of mourners, including many distinguished persons from both houses. The pall bearers included the Duke of Gloucester; the Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham; and the Speaker of the House of Commons, Charles Manners-Sutton, later, Viscount Canterbury. 

North end of transept in Westminster Abbey
from The Pictorial Handbook of London (1854)

Read more about Wilberforce's political career

Sources used include:
Cooper, Charles Henry, Memorials of Cambridge (1861, William Metcalfe)
Huish, Robert, Memoirs of George IV (1830, Thomas Kelly) 
Pollock, John, Wilberforce (Constable, 1977; Kingsway, 2007, Eastbourne)
Price, Thomas, Memoir of William Wilberforce (1836, Light & Stearns, Boston)
Weale, John, The Pictorial Handbook of London (1854, Henry G Bohn)
Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel, The Life of William Wilberforce (1839, John Murray)