Samuel Wilberforce, FRS was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day. He is now best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron
The arms of Wilberforce are displayed in a garter over the doorway of 39a St Giles in Oxford
Samuel Wilberforce, painted by George Richmond, 1868
Cartoon of Wilberforce in the 1860 Huxley-Wilberforce debate, published in Vanity Fair, 1869
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, and became an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an Evangelical Anglican, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform.
William Wilberforce by Karl Anton Hickel, c. 1794
A statue of William Wilberforce outside Wilberforce House, his birthplace in Hull
William Wilberforce by John Rising, 1790, pictured at the age of 30
Diagram of a slave ship, the Brookes, illustrating how slaves were transported
