Editing Clapham Sect (section)

==Campaigns and successes==
[[File:A view of Freetown, 1803.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Freetown]], the capital of Sierra Leone, in 1803]]
The name stems from most of its figures being non-dissenting parishioners of [[Clapham]], 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 [[Holy Trinity Church, Clapham|Holy Trinity Church]] on [[Clapham Common]] 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).

[[Henry Venn (Clapham Sect)|Henry Venn]], since seen as the founder, was lesser clergy, Curate, there (from at least 1754) and his son John became rector (parish priest) (1792&ndash;1813). The House of Commons politicians (MPs) [[William Wilberforce]] (first elected 1780) and [[Henry Thornton (reformer)|Henry Thornton]] (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 [[Beilby Porteus]], the [[Bishop of London]], himself an [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] and reformer, who sympathised with many of their aims.  The term "Clapham Sect" is an almost non-contemporaneous invention by [[James Stephen (civil servant)|James Stephen]] in an article of 1844 which celebrated and romanticised the work of these reformers.<ref>Gathro, John [http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471 "William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends"], ''CS Lewis Institute''. Retrieved 31 August 2016</ref>

The reformers included members from [[St Edmund Hall, Oxford]] and [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]], where the Vicar of [[Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge|Holy Trinity Church]], [[Charles Simeon]] had preached to students from the [[Cambridge University|university]], some of whom underwent an evangelical [[Conversion to Christianity|conversion]] experience and later became associated with the Clapham Sect.

Lampooned in their day as "the saints", the group published a journal, the ''[[Christian Observer]]'', edited by [[Zachary Macaulay]] and were also credited with the foundation of several [[missionary]] and tract societies, including the [[British and Foreign Bible Society]] and the [[Church Missionary Society]].

After many decades of work both in British society and in [[British Parliament|Parliament]], the reformers saw their efforts rewarded with the final passage of the [[Slave Trade Act 1807]], banning the trade throughout the [[British Empire]] and, after many further years of campaigning, the total emancipation of British slaves with the passing of the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]. They also campaigned vigorously for Britain to use its influence to work towards [[Abolitionism|abolishing]] [[slavery]] throughout the world.

Some of the group, [[Granville Sharp]], [[Thomas Clarkson]] and William Wilberforce, were responsible for the founding in 1787 of [[Sierra Leone]] as a settlement for some of the African-Americans freed by the British during the [[American Revolutionary War]]; it thus became the first non trading-post [[Crown colony|British "colony"]] 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".<ref name=tom/>{{rp|11}} Later, in 1792, another of the group [[John Clarkson (abolitionist)|John Clarkson]] was instrumental in the creation of its capital [[Freetown]].

The group are described by the historian Stephen Tomkins as "a network of friends and families in England, with [[William Wilberforce]] 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".<ref name=tom>Tomkins, (2010) ''The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce’s circle changed Britain'',</ref>

By 1848 when [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] bishop [[John Bird Sumner]] became [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], 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.<ref>Boyd Hilton, ''A Mad, Bad, Dangerous People? England 1783–1846'' (2006), p 175.</ref>

Members of the group founded or were involved with a number of other societies, including  the Abolition Society, formally known as the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] (founded by Clarkson, Sharp and others)<ref>{{cite web | title=The role of the Clapham Sect in the fight for the abolition of slavery | website=Art UK | date=10 August 2020 | url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-role-of-the-clapham-sect-in-the-fight-for-the-abolition-of-slavery# | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> and run largely by white middle-class women<ref>{{cite web | title='Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?' | website=The National Archives | url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> of [[Quaker]], [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] and Evangelical faiths<ref>{{cite web | title=History – British History in depth: Women: From Abolition to the Vote | website=BBC | date=23 January 2007 | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/abolition_women_article_01.shtml | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>
The  [[Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions]] followed, in 1823, and there was also the [[Proclamation Society]],<ref name="Scotland">{{cite web | last=Scotland | first=Nigel | title=The social work of the Clapham Sect: an assessment | website=The Gospel Coalition | date=29 January 2020 | url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/the-social-work-of-the-clapham-sect-an-assessment/ | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=History – William Wilberforce | website=BBC | date=7 November 2006 | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilberforce_william.shtml | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> the [[Sunday School Society]], the [[Bettering Society]],<ref>{{cite journal|date=2001|journal=Knowing & Doing|url=https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471|publisher=[[C. S. Lewis Institute]]|title=William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends|first= Richard |last=Gathro|quote=...originally appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of the C. S. Lewis Institute Report.}}</ref> and the [[Small Debt Society]].<ref name="Scotland"/>

The Clapham Sect have been credited with playing a significant part in the development of [[Victorian morality]], 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."<ref name=tom/>{{rp|248}}