Friends, Family, Colleagues

William Wilberforce, 1759-1833, Member of Parliament, is best known for leading the long fight to abolish the slave trade and then to abolish slavery in Great Britain. Although FR and Wilberforce were cousins living not far apart, FR was brought into the abolition movement by the Quakers ladies. The main part she played was gathering signatures on petitions.
Go to article about Wilberforce
Go to article about British antislavery
Go to article about Wilberforce
Go to article about British antislavery

Sir Anthony Carlisle, 1768-1840, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, was noted among other things for introducing the thin-bladed amputation knife. He was FR's master in the natural sciences, pathology, medicine &c. around 1813. He used to say that he would sign her diploma anyday.
Go to short article about Sir Anthony
Go to free download on his career
Go to Carlisle's Essay on the Disorders of Old Age & on the Means for Prolonging Human Life
Go to short article about Sir Anthony
Go to free download on his career
Go to Carlisle's Essay on the Disorders of Old Age & on the Means for Prolonging Human Life

William Hone, 1780-1842, a book seller and writer of political satires, won a court case against government censorship. Toward the end of his life he had a religious conversion. FR, who had been his neighbor and to whom he talked about it, wrote and published Some Account of the Conversion from Atheism to Christianity of the Late William Hone.
Go to article about William Hone
Go to article about William Hone

Mary Chaworth, 1785-1832, was the heiress of Annesley Hall, neighboring the Rolleston estate of Watnall. FR and Mary were friends in their youth, and Mary danced at the balls at Watnall Hall. Mary's name is often connected to Lord Byron, whose famous poem, "the Dream," is based on his relationship to Mary.
Go to Annesley Hall
Go to "The Dream"
Go to Annesley Hall
Go to "The Dream"

Sir Humphry Davy's studies in electrochemistry led to the discovery of magnesium, calcium, strontium, potassium, and "X," later named iodine. He became President of the Royal Society in 1820. FR knew him in his youth. Her nephew married Davy's niece and the couple's first child carried the name Humphry Davy Rolleston.
Go to article about Sir Humphry Davy
Go to illustrated essay on Davy's self-expermentation with nitrous oxide
Go to article about Sir Humphry Davy
Go to illustrated essay on Davy's self-expermentation with nitrous oxide

Henry Thornton, 1760-1815. Henry Thornton, honored today for his economic theory, was a wealthy merchant. He was also a strong Christian who invested thousands of pounds in the anti-slavery movement and other social and moral causes. He was a cousin of FR's and he is the one who brought her to a better understanding of the Christian faith.
Go to article about Henry Thornton
Go to book The Clapham Sect by Stephen Tomkins
Go to article about Henry Thornton
Go to book The Clapham Sect by Stephen Tomkins
Others:
James Montgomery, hymn writer
Copley Fielding, John Varley, and Henry Gastineau - artists, Frances' teachers
William Josiah Irons, Henry Thompson, James Gall, Edward Smedley, Harford Battersby, J. H. Broome, George B. Gibbons - ministers, most of whom were also scholars or poets, and Frances' correspondents
Sir George Cornwall Lewis - statesman, political philosopher
Ebenezer Elliot - merchant, poet
James Reddie and Francis Redford - scientists
Charles H. Cottrell, who translated from German Bunsen's five volume Egypt's Place in Universal History, seems not to have left much other mark in his generation. However, to FR he was a close friend whose expertise in Egyptian lore greatly helped her in writing Mazzaroth. He lived a number of years in Italy and usually spent the autumn there.
HOME
James Montgomery, hymn writer
Copley Fielding, John Varley, and Henry Gastineau - artists, Frances' teachers
William Josiah Irons, Henry Thompson, James Gall, Edward Smedley, Harford Battersby, J. H. Broome, George B. Gibbons - ministers, most of whom were also scholars or poets, and Frances' correspondents
Sir George Cornwall Lewis - statesman, political philosopher
Ebenezer Elliot - merchant, poet
James Reddie and Francis Redford - scientists
Charles H. Cottrell, who translated from German Bunsen's five volume Egypt's Place in Universal History, seems not to have left much other mark in his generation. However, to FR he was a close friend whose expertise in Egyptian lore greatly helped her in writing Mazzaroth. He lived a number of years in Italy and usually spent the autumn there.
HOME