Wilberforce and his milieux: the worlds of Anglican Evangelicalism, c.1780-1830

Abstract

Evangelical reformism has always been recognized as a massive influence on early nineteenth-century culture. Philanthropic pressure groups dominated public life. But while much attention has recently been devoted to the language and ideas which informed the Evangelical mindset, too many historians have accepted the heroic emphases of nineteenth-century memoirists, and have concentrated on Wilberforce and the crusade against slavery. This thesis contends that the real strength of the movement lay in business, the professions and burgeoning officialdom, and traces the clerical and business networks that connected this metropolitan nexus with provincial Britain. As is shown in chapters on the Church and Universities, patronage and politics, the City of London, the Navy and colonial affairs, this was a dynamic, highly-organized milieu in which patronage, place and influence were used to the full.