British Philanthropy in the Globalizing World: Entrepreneurs and Evangelicals, 1756–1840

Although the subject of a considerable historiography, as this new study demonstrates, there remain both new questions to ask and new insights to glean from intensive study of later eighteenth and early nineteenth-century British philanthropy. Allpress’s introduction deals carefully with issues of definition and historiographical focus and then moves on to draw attention to the significance of new conceptions of philanthropy and new patterns of activity from the mid-eighteenth century. Outlining some of the key themes of the study, he describes with renewed precision the ways in which this activity was motivated by religious commitment, especially but far from exclusively in its evangelical form, and was facilitated by global trade and extended trading and financial networks. The ambition of this philanthropy was no less than the moral and social betterment of humanity, often imagined in global terms, and its practice was based on associational models and the development of philanthropy as a vocation to be practiced alongside the commercial or professional requirements of making a living. The remainder of the book explores how this ideal developed and operated in practice.The first chapter provides a case study of John Thornton as an exemplar and significant founding figure of this new style of philanthropy inflected by commercial experience and motivated by evangelical religion. It traces the intergenerational trading partnerships with other key merchant families, including the Wilberforces and their partners the Smiths, and the overlapping circles of metropolitan evangelicalism in which Thornton moved. Allpress highlights Thornton’s role in forging links between separate local groups, encouraging the transmission of successful experiments in pastoral practice and fostering dissenting as well as Anglican initiatives, while his practice of piety in his family and business helped to form the next generation of philanthropists. Chapter 2 details the work of this next generation in developing a new infrastructure of associational philanthropy, transferring experience of the collaborative commercial practices of Russia merchants and linking their enterprises to networks of banking that facilitated both expanded fundraising and the development of regional organizations.The third chapter investigates the ‘Clapham Sect’ not just as an example of collective agency but also as a key co-ordinating node in a fast-growing network of philanthropy. It shows how, for example, linking the abolitionist group focused on Teston with philanthropic Russia merchants, bankers, metropolitan notables, and literary figures like Thomas Bowdler and Hannah More could facilitate the dissemination of successful innovation in philanthropic practice. It also pays close attention to the means by which these connections were forged via family and commercial links and the creation of a local philanthropic culture based on conversation and collaborative activity underpinned by a common commitment to Christian piety, which was capable of transcending formal religious difference. Chapter 4 looks at the Clapham philanthropy as a shared intellectual enterprise centred around a concept and practice of trust as a crucial social good. This is examined though the moral philosophy of Thomas Gisborne, the social commentary in Wilberforce’s Practical View, the sermons of John Venn, the educational writings of Thomas Babington, and strikingly in Henry Thornton’s writing on Paper Credit. In the light of this material, Allpress argues that Clapham philanthropic initiatives particularly attacked practices that were corrosive of trust like the enslaved trade and sought to promote trust-building, whether between Africans and traders in legitimate commercial enterprises or the various social classes and religious groups involved in its developing network of organizations.Chapter 5 provides an account of the growth of transnational philanthropy through examples from India, Sierra Leone, and New Zealand. It highlights swings between the relative significance of local clusters in places like Calcutta and the larger clusters in the metropole and some of the difficulties incurred by attempts to manage at a distance. A final chapter examines developments from the 1820s, which saw the eclipse of the personal influence of the Clapham group, the development of large-scale organization, and the tendency for specialization with the growth of paid staff in larger organizations and a decrease in the number of individuals engaged in broad-spectrum philanthropic activity.This is an excellent study that combines a good awareness of the antecedent historiography of British philanthropy with careful attention not only to the objectives of philanthropic activity but to its practices and its practitioners. It is particularly valuable for the links it draws between the commercial worlds inhabited by later Hanoverian philanthropists and the culture of philanthropy that they created with its distinctive forms of organization and sociability. The arguments made in the fourth chapter about the trust-based understanding of a flourishing society held in common by many of the philanthropists associated with Clapham are particularly striking and should prompt an enlarged discussion about the world-view of this influential group. Allpress has produced an ambitious and productive work, rich in insights, that should both inform and provoke a more nuanced debate about the significance of the philanthropic networks that formed such a significant part of the cultural sphere of nineteenth-century Britain.