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Clapham Sect

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The Clapham Sect, or Clapham Saints, were a group of social reformers associated with <a href="Holy_Trinity_Clapham" class="mw-redirect" title="Holy Trinity Clapham">Holy Trinity Clapham</a> in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s. Despite the label "<a href="Sect" title="Sect">sect</a>", most members remained in the <a href="Established_Church" class="mw-redirect" title="Established Church">established</a> (and dominant) <a href="Church_of_England" title="Church of England">Church of England</a>, which was highly interwoven with offices of state.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

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The <a href="Clapham" title="Clapham">Clapham</a> movement grew from 18th-century evangelical trends in the Church of England (the <a href="Anglican_Church" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglican Church">Anglican Church</a>) and started to coalesce around residents of Clapham, especially during the rectorship there of <a href="John_Venn_(priest)" title="John Venn (priest)">John Venn</a> (in office: 1792-1813)<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a>

and came to engage in systematically advocating social reform.<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a>

In the course of time the growth of evangelical <a href="Christian_revival" title="Christian revival">Christian revivalism</a> in England<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a>

and the movement for <a href="Catholic_emancipation" title="Catholic emancipation">Catholic emancipation</a> fed into a waning of the old precept that every Englishman automatically counted as an Anglican.<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a>

Some new Christian groups (such as the <a href="Methodism" title="Methodism">Methodists</a> and the <a href="Plymouth_Brethren" title="Plymouth Brethren">Plymouth Brethren</a>) moved away from Anglicanism, and the Christian social reformers who succeeded the Claphamites from about the 1830s<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

often exemplified <a href="Nonconformist_conscience" title="Nonconformist conscience">Nonconformist conscience</a><a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a>

and identified with groups functioning outside the established Anglican Church.<a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Summary_and_context">Summary and context</h2></div>

These were reformists and abolitionists, being contemporary terms as the 'Sect' was – until 1844 – unnamed. They figured and heard readings, sermons and lessons from prominent and wealthy <a href="Evangelical_Anglican" class="mw-redirect" title="Evangelical Anglican">Evangelical Anglicans</a> who called for the <a href="Abolitionism" title="Abolitionism">liberation of slaves</a>,<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a> abolition of the <a href="History_of_slavery" title="History of slavery">slave trade</a> and the <a href="Prison_reform" title="Prison reform">reform of the penal system</a>, and recognised and advocated other cornerstone civil-political rights and socio-economic rights. Defying the <a href="Status_quo" title="Status quo">status quo</a> of <a href="Labour_exploitation" class="mw-redirect" title="Labour exploitation">labour exploitation</a> and consequent vested interests in the legislature was laborious and was motivated by their <a href="Christian_faith" class="mw-redirect" title="Christian faith">Christian faith</a> and concern for <a href="Social_justice" title="Social justice">social justice</a> and fairness for all human beings. Their most famous member was <a href="William_Wilberforce" title="William Wilberforce">William Wilberforce</a>, widely commemorated in monuments and credited with hastening the end of the slave trade.

Electoral and other political rights were a main cause of all <a href="Radicals_(UK)" title="Radicals (UK)">Radicals</a> then their Northern successors the <a href="Chartism" title="Chartism">Chartists</a>, their shared earliest success being the <a href="Great_Reform_Act_1832" class="mw-redirect" title="Great Reform Act 1832">Great Reform Act 1832</a>. Many of the other key rights saw a comparative context in treatises of the <a href="Age_of_Enlightenment" title="Age of Enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a>, and <a href="Age_of_Revolutions" class="mw-redirect" title="Age of Revolutions">Age of Revolutions</a>. France's 1789 <a href="Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen" title="Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen">Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen</a>, together with the 1689 <a href="English_Bill_of_Rights" class="mw-redirect" title="English Bill of Rights">English Bill of Rights</a>, the 1776 <a href="United_States_Declaration_of_Independence" title="United States Declaration of Independence">United States Declaration of Independence</a>, and the 1789 <a href="United_States_Bill_of_Rights" title="United States Bill of Rights">United States Bill of Rights</a>, inspired, in large part, the 1948 <a href="United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a> <a href="Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights" title="Universal Declaration of Human Rights">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>.<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Campaigns_and_successes">Campaigns and successes</h2></div>

The name stems from most of its figures being non-dissenting parishioners of <a href="Clapham" title="Clapham">Clapham</a>, then a village south of London (today part of south-west London), where Wilberforce and Thornton, its two most influential leaders, often lived and met. Liturgy, sermons and sometimes meetings at <a href="Holy_Trinity_Church%2C_Clapham" title="Holy Trinity Church, Clapham">Holy Trinity Church</a> on <a href="Clapham_Common" title="Clapham Common">Clapham Common</a> were a central feature, largely neighboured by upmarket new homes and expensive single-home plots of land (fashionable villas in the terms of the time).

<a href="Henry_Venn_(Clapham_Sect)" title="Henry Venn (Clapham Sect)">Henry Venn</a>, since seen as the founder, was lesser clergy, Curate, there (from at least 1754) and his son John became rector (parish priest) (1792–1813). The House of Commons politicians (MPs) <a href="William_Wilberforce" title="William Wilberforce">William Wilberforce</a> (first elected 1780) and <a href="Henry_Thornton_(reformer)" title="Henry Thornton (reformer)">Henry Thornton</a> (first elected 1782), two of the most influential of the sect were parishioners and many of the meetings were held in their houses. They were encouraged by <a href="Beilby_Porteus" title="Beilby Porteus">Beilby Porteus</a>, the <a href="Bishop_of_London" title="Bishop of London">Bishop of London</a>, himself an <a href="Abolitionism" title="Abolitionism">abolitionist</a> and reformer, who sympathised with many of their aims. The term "Clapham Sect" is an almost non-contemporaneous invention by <a href="James_Stephen_(civil_servant)" title="James Stephen (civil servant)">James Stephen</a> in an article of 1844 which celebrated and romanticised the work of these reformers.<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a>

The reformers included members from <a href="St_Edmund_Hall%2C_Oxford" title="St Edmund Hall, Oxford">St Edmund Hall, Oxford</a> and <a href="Magdalene_College%2C_Cambridge" title="Magdalene College, Cambridge">Magdalene College, Cambridge</a>, where the Vicar of <a href="Holy_Trinity_Church%2C_Cambridge" title="Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge">Holy Trinity Church</a>, <a href="Charles_Simeon" title="Charles Simeon">Charles Simeon</a> had preached to students from the <a href="Cambridge_University" class="mw-redirect" title="Cambridge University">university</a>, some of whom underwent an evangelical <a href="Conversion_to_Christianity" title="Conversion to Christianity">conversion</a> experience and later became associated with the Clapham Sect.

Lampooned in their day as "the saints", the group published a journal, the <a href="Christian_Observer" title="Christian Observer">Christian Observer</a>, edited by <a href="Zachary_Macaulay" title="Zachary Macaulay">Zachary Macaulay</a> and were also credited with the foundation of several <a href="Missionary" title="Missionary">missionary</a> and tract societies, including the <a href="British_and_Foreign_Bible_Society" title="British and Foreign Bible Society">British and Foreign Bible Society</a> and the <a href="Church_Missionary_Society" class="mw-redirect" title="Church Missionary Society">Church Missionary Society</a>.

After many decades of work both in British society and in <a href="British_Parliament" class="mw-redirect" title="British Parliament">Parliament</a>, the reformers saw their efforts rewarded with the final passage of the <a href="Slave_Trade_Act_1807" title="Slave Trade Act 1807">Slave Trade Act 1807</a>, banning the trade throughout the <a href="British_Empire" title="British Empire">British Empire</a> and, after many further years of campaigning, the total emancipation of British slaves with the passing of the <a href="Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833" title="Slavery Abolition Act 1833">Slavery Abolition Act 1833</a>. They also campaigned vigorously for Britain to use its influence to work towards <a href="Abolitionism" title="Abolitionism">abolishing</a> <a href="Slavery" title="Slavery">slavery</a> throughout the world.

Some of the group, <a href="Granville_Sharp" title="Granville Sharp">Granville Sharp</a>, <a href="Thomas_Clarkson" title="Thomas Clarkson">Thomas Clarkson</a> and William Wilberforce, were responsible for the founding in 1787 of <a href="Sierra_Leone" title="Sierra Leone">Sierra Leone</a> as a settlement for some of the African-Americans freed by the British during the <a href="American_Revolutionary_War" title="American Revolutionary War">American Revolutionary War</a>; it thus became the first non trading-post <a href="Crown_colony" title="Crown colony">British "colony"</a> akin to a fledgling mission state in Africa, whose purpose in Clarkson's words was "the abolition of the slave trade, the civilisation of Africa, and the introduction of the gospel there".<a href="#cite_note-tom-11">[11]</a>: 11 Later, in 1792, another of the group <a href="John_Clarkson_(abolitionist)" title="John Clarkson (abolitionist)">John Clarkson</a> was instrumental in the creation of its capital <a href="Freetown" title="Freetown">Freetown</a>.

The group are described by the historian Stephen Tomkins as "a network of friends and families in England, with <a href="William_Wilberforce" title="William Wilberforce">William Wilberforce</a> as its centre of gravity, who were powerfully bound together by their shared moral and spiritual values, by their religious mission and social activism, by their love for each other, and by marriage".<a href="#cite_note-tom-11">[11]</a>

By 1848 when <a href="Evangelicalism" title="Evangelicalism">evangelical</a> bishop <a href="John_Bird_Sumner" title="John Bird Sumner">John Bird Sumner</a> became <a href="Archbishop_of_Canterbury" title="Archbishop of Canterbury">Archbishop of Canterbury</a>, it is said that between a quarter and a third of Anglican clergy were linked to the movement, which by then had diversified greatly in its goals, although they were no longer considered an organised faction.<a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a>

Members of the group founded or were involved with a number of other societies, including the Abolition Society, formally known as the <a href="Society_for_Effecting_the_Abolition_of_the_Slave_Trade" title="Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade">Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade</a> (founded by Clarkson, Sharp and others)<a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a> and run largely by white middle-class women<a href="#cite_note-14">[14]</a> of <a href="Quaker" class="mw-redirect" title="Quaker">Quaker</a>, <a href="Unitarianism" title="Unitarianism">Unitarian</a> and Evangelical faiths<a href="#cite_note-15">[15]</a>

The <a href="Society_for_the_Mitigation_and_Gradual_Abolition_of_Slavery_Throughout_the_British_Dominions" class="mw-redirect" title="Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions">Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions</a> followed, in 1823, and there was also the <a href="Proclamation_Society" class="mw-redirect" title="Proclamation Society">Proclamation Society</a>,<a href="#cite_note-Scotland-16">[16]</a><a href="#cite_note-17">[17]</a> the <a href="Sunday_School_Society" title="Sunday School Society">Sunday School Society</a>, the Bettering Society,<a href="#cite_note-18">[18]</a> and the Small Debt Society.<a href="#cite_note-Scotland-16">[16]</a>

The Clapham Sect have been credited with playing a significant part in the development of <a href="Victorian_morality" title="Victorian morality">Victorian morality</a>, through their writings, their societies, their influence in Parliament, and their example in philanthropy and moral campaigns, especially against slavery. In the words of Tomkins, "The ethos of Clapham became the spirit of the age."<a href="#cite_note-tom-11">[11]</a>: 248

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Members">Members</h2></div>

Members of the Clapham Sect, and those associated with them, included:<a href="#cite_note-19">[19]</a>

<ul><li><a href="Thomas_Fowell_Buxton" class="mw-redirect" title="Thomas Fowell Buxton">Thomas Fowell Buxton</a> (1786–1845), leader of the movement for the abolition of slavery, MP for <a href="Weymouth_and_Melcombe_Regis_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (UK Parliament constituency)">Weymouth and Melcombe Regis</a> and brewer</li>

<li><a href="William_Dealtry" title="William Dealtry">William Dealtry</a> (1775–1847), Rector of Holy Trinity Church, <a href="Clapham" title="Clapham">Clapham</a>, mathematician</li>

<li><a href="Edward_James_Eliot" title="Edward James Eliot">Edward James Eliot</a> (1758–97), MP for <a href="St_Germans_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="St Germans (UK Parliament constituency)">St Germans</a> and <a href="Liskeard_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Liskeard (UK Parliament constituency)">Liskeard</a></li>

<li>Samuel Gardiner (1755-1827) and his wife Mary Boddam of Coombe Lodge, <a href="Whitchurch-on-Thames" title="Whitchurch-on-Thames">Whitchurch-on-Thames</a></li>

<li><a href="Thomas_Gisborne" title="Thomas Gisborne">Thomas Gisborne</a> (1758–1846), <a href="Prebendary" title="Prebendary">Prebendary</a> of <a href="Durham_Cathedral" title="Durham Cathedral">Durham Cathedral</a> and author</li>

<li><a href="Charles_Grant_(British_East_India_Company)" title="Charles Grant (British East India Company)">Charles Grant</a> (1746–1823), <a href="Administrator_of_the_government" title="Administrator of the government">administrator</a>, chairman of the directors of the <a href="British_East_India_Company" class="mw-redirect" title="British East India Company">British East India Company</a>, father of the first <a href="Lord_Glenelg" class="mw-redirect" title="Lord Glenelg">Lord Glenelg</a></li>

<li><a href="Zachary_Macaulay" title="Zachary Macaulay">Zachary Macaulay</a> (1768–1838), estate manager, <a href="Governor" title="Governor">governor</a> of <a href="Sierra_Leone" title="Sierra Leone">Sierra Leone</a>, father of <a href="Thomas_Babington_Macaulay%2C_1st_Baron_Macaulay" class="mw-redirect" title="Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay">Thomas Babington Macaulay</a></li>

<li><a href="Hannah_More" title="Hannah More">Hannah More</a> (1745–1833), <a href="Bluestocking" title="Bluestocking">bluestocking</a>, playwright, religious writer and philanthropist</li>

<li><a href="Granville_Sharp" title="Granville Sharp">Granville Sharp</a> (1735–1813), campaigner for social justice, scholar and administrator</li>

<li><a href="Charles_Simeon" title="Charles Simeon">Charles Simeon</a> (1759–1836), Anglican cleric, minister of <a href="Holy_Trinity_Church%2C_Cambridge" title="Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge">Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge</a>, promoter of <a href="Christian_mission" title="Christian mission">missions</a></li>

<li><a href="William_Smith_(abolitionist)" title="William Smith (abolitionist)">William Smith</a> (1756–1835), MP for <a href="Sudbury_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Sudbury (UK Parliament constituency)">Sudbury</a> and <a href="Norwich_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Norwich (UK Parliament constituency)">Norwich</a></li>

<li><a href="James_Stephen_(British_politician)" title="James Stephen (British politician)">James Stephen</a> (1758–1832), <a href="Master_(judiciary)" title="Master (judiciary)">Master</a> of <a href="Court_of_Chancery" title="Court of Chancery">Chancery</a>, great-grandfather of <a href="Virginia_Woolf" title="Virginia Woolf">Virginia Woolf</a></li>

<li><a href="John_Shore%2C_1st_Baron_Teignmouth" title="John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth">Lord Teignmouth</a> (1751–1834), <a href="Governor-general" title="Governor-general">Governor-general</a> of <a href="India" title="India">India</a></li>

<li><a href="John_Thornton_(philanthropist)" title="John Thornton (philanthropist)">John Thornton</a> (1720-1790), prominent Clapham resident, philanthropist and founder member of the group</li>

<li><a href="Henry_Thornton_(abolitionist)" class="mw-redirect" title="Henry Thornton (abolitionist)">Henry Thornton</a> (1760–1815), economist, banker, philanthropist, <a href="Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)" title="Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)">Member of Parliament</a> (MP) for <a href="Southwark_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)">Southwark</a>, son of <a href="John_Thornton_(philanthropist)" title="John Thornton (philanthropist)">John Thornton</a> and great-grandfather of writer <a href="E.M._Forster" class="mw-redirect" title="E.M. Forster">E.M. Forster</a></li>

<li><a href="Marianne_Thornton" title="Marianne Thornton">Marianne Thornton</a> (1797-1887), daughter of <a href="Henry_Thornton_(reformer)" title="Henry Thornton (reformer)">Henry Thornton</a></li>

<li><a href="Henry_Venn_(Clapham_Sect)" title="Henry Venn (Clapham Sect)">Henry Venn</a> (1725–97), curate of Holy Trinity Church, <a href="Clapham" title="Clapham">Clapham</a>, and founder of the group, father of <a href="John_Venn_(priest)" title="John Venn (priest)">John Venn (priest)</a> and great-grandfather of <a href="John_Venn" title="John Venn">John Venn</a> (originator of the <a href="Venn_diagram" title="Venn diagram">Venn diagram</a>)</li>

<li><a href="John_Venn_(priest)" title="John Venn (priest)">John Venn</a> (1759–1813), Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Clapham</li>

<li><a href="William_Wilberforce" title="William Wilberforce">William Wilberforce</a> (1759–1833), <a href="Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)" title="Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)">MP</a> for <a href="Kingston_upon_Hull_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Kingston upon Hull (UK Parliament constituency)">Kingston upon Hull</a>, <a href="Yorkshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Yorkshire (UK Parliament constituency)">Yorkshire</a> and <a href="Bramber_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Bramber (UK Parliament constituency)">Bramber</a>, <a href="Abolitionist" class="mw-redirect" title="Abolitionist">abolitionist</a>, and leader of the campaign against the <a href="History_of_slavery" title="History of slavery">slave trade</a></li></ul>

<a href="Portal%3AChristianity" title="Portal:Christianity">Christianity portal</a>

<ul><li><a href="List_of_abolitionist_forerunners" title="List of abolitionist forerunners">List of abolitionist forerunners</a></li>

<li><a href="Testonites" title="Testonites">Testonites</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFVenn2012" class="citation book cs1"><a href="John_Venn" title="John Venn">Venn, John</a> (8 March 2012) [1904]. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rRcFkXb_-OoC">Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621</a>. Cambridge Library Collection - Religion (reprint ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781108044929</bdi>. Retrieved 2 December 2022. <q>[...] John [Venn] was the founder of an evangelical sect at Clapham (where his father had also been curate), and of the Church Missionary Society [...].</q></cite>

</li>

<cite id="CITEREFNirmala_Sharma2016" class="citation book cs1">Nirmala Sharma (21 March 2016). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hJ7XCwAAQBAJ">Unraveling Misconceptions: A New Understanding of E. M. Forster's A Passage to India</a>. Xlibris Corporation. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781514475218</bdi>. Retrieved 2 December 2022. <q>'The Clapham Sect was a group of evangelical reformers that presented a new "crystallization of power: parliament, the Established Church, the journals of opinion, the universities, the City, the civil and fighting services, the government of the Empire. Clapham found a place in them all, not infrequently a distinguished one.' [...] The Clapham Sect was also noted for its 'advocacy of the abolition of the slave trade.'</q></cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFDitchfield2003" class="citation book cs1">Ditchfield, G. M. (2003) [1998]. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zWv9LeLsyhUC">The Evangelical Revival</a>. Introductions to history (reprint ed.). London: Psychology Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781857284812</bdi>. Retrieved 1 December 2022.</cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFMorgan2017" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Edmund_Morgan_(historian)" title="Edmund Morgan (historian)">Morgan, Edmund S.</a> (28 June 2017) [2015]. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=fAQqDwAAQBAJ">Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea</a>. Pickle Partners Publishing. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781787204683</bdi>. Retrieved 1 December 2022. <q>Every Englishman had been automatically transformed by government decree into a member of the new Anglican church.</q></cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFTwells2008" class="citation book cs1">Twells, Alison (17 December 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YvyGDAAAQBAJ">The Civilising Mission and the English Middle Class, 1792-1850: The 'Heathen' at Home and Overseas</a> (reprint ed.). Basingstoke: Springer. p. 38. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780230234727</bdi>. Retrieved 1 December 2022. <q>The 'Claphamites' were a group of powerful and influential men associated with the Clapham congregation [...].</q></cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFBradley1976" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Ian_C._Bradley" class="mw-redirect" title="Ian C. Bradley">Bradley, Ian C.</a> (1976). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iX7ZAAAAMAAJ">The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians</a>. Cape. p. 16. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780224011624</bdi>. Retrieved 1 December 2022. <q>[...] the [...] very important contribution made by Nonconformity to British life in the nineteenth century.</q></cite>

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<cite id="CITEREFCarter2006" class="citation book cs1">Carter, Grayson (2006). "Evangelical Religion". In Litzenberger, C. J.; Lyon, Eileen Groth (eds.). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S8YbICxXWDQC">The Human Tradition in Modern Britain</a>. Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 56–57. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780742537354</bdi>. Retrieved 25 November 2022. <q>By the end of the long eighteenth century [1688-1832], the members of the Clapham Sect were quickly passing from the scene. [...] The successors of the Clapham Sect lived at a time of rapid and fundamental social change, arising primarily from the continued effects of industrialization. [...] various issues challenged in different ways the spiritual aspirations of the evangelical movement, producing considerable pressure (and even unrest) within its ranks. As a result, during the late 1820s and early 1830s, the 'Gospel movement' began to fragment into a number of diverse, but not altogether distinct, parties and even denominations. Examples of millennial and apocalyptic speculation, ultra-Calvinistic doctrines, and even extreme forms of Pentecostalism, could now be found among the adherents of evangelical religion, leading many traditional evangelicals to lose confidence in the ability of the 'Gospel movement' to bring about the spiritual renewal of the English church and the nation as a whole.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> Ann M. Burton, "British Evangelicals, Economic Warfare and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1794–1810." Anglican and Episcopal History 65#2 (1996): 197–225. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42611776">in JSTOR</a>

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<li id="cite_note-9"><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a> Douglas K. Stevenson (1987), American Life and Institutions, Stuttgart (Germany), p. 34

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<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> Gathro, John <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471">"William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends"</a>, CS Lewis Institute. Retrieved 31 August 2016

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<li id="cite_note-tom-11">^ <a href="#cite_ref-tom_11-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-tom_11-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-tom_11-2">c</a> Tomkins, (2010) The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce’s circle changed Britain,

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<li id="cite_note-12"><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a> Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, Dangerous People? England 1783–1846 (2006), p 175.

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<li id="cite_note-13"><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-role-of-the-clapham-sect-in-the-fight-for-the-abolition-of-slavery#">"The role of the Clapham Sect in the fight for the abolition of slavery"</a>. Art UK. 10 August 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-14"><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm">"'Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?'"</a>. The National Archives. Retrieved 20 December 2020.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-15"><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/abolition_women_article_01.shtml">"History – British History in depth: Women: From Abolition to the Vote"</a>. BBC. 23 January 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2020.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-Scotland-16">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Scotland_16-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Scotland_16-1">b</a> <cite id="CITEREFScotland2020" class="citation web cs1">Scotland, Nigel (29 January 2020). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/the-social-work-of-the-clapham-sect-an-assessment/">"The social work of the Clapham Sect: an assessment"</a>. The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 20 December 2020.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-17"><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilberforce_william.shtml">"History – William Wilberforce"</a>. BBC. 7 November 2006. Retrieved 20 December 2020.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-18"><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFGathro2001" class="citation journal cs1">Gathro, Richard (2001). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471">"William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends"</a>. Knowing & Doing. <a href="C._S._Lewis_Institute" class="mw-redirect" title="C. S. Lewis Institute">C. S. Lewis Institute</a>. <q>...originally appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of the C. S. Lewis Institute Report.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-19"><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a> David Spring, "The Clapham Sect: Some Social and Political Aspects." Victorian Studies 5#1 (1961): 35–48.

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</ol></div></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2></div>

<ul><li>Brown, Ford K. Fathers of the Victorians: The Age of Wilberforce (1961).</li>

<li>Burton, Ann M. "British Evangelicals, Economic Warfare and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1794–1810." Anglican and Episcopal History 65#2 (1996): 197–225. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42611776">in JSTOR</a></li>

<li>Butler, Ryan J. "Transatlantic Discontinuity? The Clapham Sect's Influence in the United States." Church history 88, no. 3 (2019): 672–695.</li>

<li>Cowper, William. "'The Better Hour Is Near': Wilberforce And Transformative Religion." (Evangelical History Association Lecture 2013) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:d0N16AD0Mb8J:scholar.google.com/+clapham&hl=en&as_sdt=5,27&sciodt=1,27">online</a></li>

<li>Danker, Ryan Nicholas. Wesley and the Anglicans: Political Division in Early Evangelicalism (InterVarsity Press, 2016).</li>

<li>Hennell, Michael. John Venn and the Clapham Sect (1958).</li>

<li>Hilton, Boyd. The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought, 1795-‐1865 (1988).</li>

<li>Hilton, Boyd. A Mad, Bad, Dangerous People? England 1783–1846 (2006), pp 174–88, passim.</li>

<li>Himmelfarb, Gertrude. "From Clapham to Bloomsbury: A Genealogy of Morals." Commentary 79.2 (1985): 36.</li>

<li>Howse, Ernest Marshall. Saints in Politics: The 'Clapham Sect' and the Growth of Freedom (University of Toronto Press, 1952)</li>

<li>Klein, Milton M. Amazing Grace: John Thornton & the Clapham Sect (2004), 160 pp.</li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFMajor2012" class="citation book cs1">Major, Andrea (2012). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Qq-GuJKf35wC">Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772–1843</a>. Liverpool University Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-1-84631-758-3</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li>Spring, David. "The Clapham Sect: Some Social and Political Aspects." Victorian Studies 5#1 (1961): 35–48. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3825306">in JSTOR</a></li>

<li>Tomkins, Stephen. The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce's Circle Changed Britain (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2010)</li>

<li>Tomkins, Stephen. William Wilberforce: A Biography (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007).</li>

<li>Ward, William Reginald. The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge University Press, 2002).</li>

<li>Wolffe, John/ "Clapham Sect (act. 1792–1815)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005; online edn, Oct 2016 <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/42140,">accessed 13 Nov 2017</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/the-clapham-group-11630311.html">The Clapham Group – 1701–1800 – Church History Timeline</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/William_Wilberforce_FullArticle">William Wilberforce (1759–1833): The Shrimp Who Stopped Slavery by Christopher D. Hancock</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/aug/02/wilberforce-condoned-slavery-files-claim">William Wilberforce 'condoned slavery', Colonial Office papers reveal – The Guardian – Davies, Caroline. Monday 2 August 2010.</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.economist.com/culture/2010/08/26/do-gooders-in-1790s-london">Do-gooders in 1790s London – The Economist – Aug 26th 2010</a></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

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