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Henry Beaufoy

http://www.oocities.org/televisioncity/lot/2522/rb3.jpg( 1750-1795)

Henry Hanbury Beaufoy was raised a Quaker, and though he converted to the Anglican Church before marriage, he remained a supporter of religious dissenters throughout his political career.[1] Beaufoy became an MP in 1783, and quickly distinguished himself as a frequent speaker.[2] Beaufoy endorsed a more radical political philosophy than many contemporaries, and was a member of the Revolution Society. [3] Beaufoy was also known for his abolitionist tendencies: he voted against the slave trade in Parliament in 1791 and then spoke out in favor of gradual abolition the following year.4]

It is eminently possible that the idea for the African Association originated with Beaufoy.[5]  When it was founded, he was appointed Secretary, and he certainly served the Association in that position with enthusiasm until his death in 1795, recording the goings on of the association with “a charm and facility not often found in the records of Learned Societies.”[6]

[1] G. M. Ditchfield, “Beaufoy, Henry Hanbury (1750–1795)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1865, accessed 24 April 2012.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Nicholas Rogers, Crowds, Culture, and Politics in Georgian Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 182 ; G.M. Ditchfield, “Beaufoy, Henry Hanbury (1750-1795),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1865?docPos=1.
[4] Ditchfield, “Beaufoy, Henry Hanbury (1750–1795).”
[5] Ibid.
[6]Dorothy Middleton, “Banks and African Exploration,” in Sir Joseph Banks: A Global Perspective, ed. R.E.R. Banks, B. Elliott, J.G. Hawkes, D. King-Hele, and G.Ll. Lucas (Whistable, Kent: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1994), 172.