Happy Christmas to all our followers. For the 17thC background to the Anglican Christmas celebrated by Wilberforce see this fine article by Ariel Hessayon open.substack.com/pub/arielhessa…

#OTD 1807 the Slave Trade Act was passed, abolishing the trade of enslaved people in the British Empire. But why then was the Slavery Abolition Act passed 26 years later? Find out more below: historyofparliament.com/2024/08/28/183…

The original MSS diary is lost for this period, but Wilberforce seems to have missed the celebrations. The Life has this curious extract from 25 March 1807: 'A meeting of the Slave Trade Committee in Palace Yard, knew it not till afterwards'.

The Wilberforce boys behaving badly in 1816: 'Samuel [11 yo] & Henry [9] \under Him/ threw dirt against the Windows of the Servants Hall, broke one & cracked another – I call’d them in immediately & made them go to Work...But Samuel was not penitent...'

One of the 6000+ people mentioned in the diaries is Henry Atley, buried in the Dissenting graveyard at Bunhill Fields (and given this obituary in Bunhill Memorials):

Looking forward to presenting a progress report at the IHR's British History in the Long 18thC seminar: history.ac.uk/events/diaries… In person at the University of Northampton, and on Zoom.