Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

‘Aunt Anna's Report’: the Buxton women and the Aborigines Select Committee, 1835–37

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03086530410001700381

1743-9329

Zoë Laidlaw,

African studies and sociopolitical issues

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 6 June 1837. T[homas] F[owell] B[uxton] Papers (hereafter TFB), Micr. Brit. Emp. 17, vol.15, 307a–b, Rhodes House Library, Oxford. A. Lester, Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain (London, 2001), 105–23. According to Lester, the report achieved 'emblematic status' for contemporaries and subsequent historians alike. A. Porter, 'Trusteeship, Anti-slavery and Humanitarianism', in A. Porter (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire, iii, (Oxford, 1999), 208, 198–221. Porter, 'Trusteeship'; A. Porter, '"Commerce and Christianity": The Rise and Fall of a Nineteenth-Century Missionary Slogan', Historical Journal, 28 (1985), 597–621; B. Stanley, The Bible and the Flag: Protestant Missions and British Imperialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Leicester, 1990); J.G. Pretorius, The British Humanitarians and the Cape Eastern Frontier, 1834–36 (Pretoria, 1988); H. Reynolds, The Law of the Land (Ringwood, 1987), 82–102. See also N. Mostert, Frontiers: The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People (London, 1992), 739–40, 756–59, 801–02; E.J. Elbourne, '"To Colonize the Mind": Evangelical Missionaries in Britain and the Eastern Cape 1790–1837', D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1992, 304–09, 313; R. Milliss, Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day Massacre of 1838, George Gipps and the British Conquest of New South Wales (Sydney, 1994), 117–18, 225–33, 442–45. Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with Minutes of Evidence and Appendices, PP 1836 VII; Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index, PP 1837, VII. See, for example, C.A. Bayly, 'The British and "Indigenous" Peoples, 1760–1860: Power, Perception and Identity', in M. Daunton and R. Halpern (eds.), Empire and Others: British Encounters with Indigenous Peoples, 1600–1850 (Philadelphia, 1999), 32–35. See, for example, J.S. Galbraith, Reluctant Empire: British Policy and the South African Frontier 1834–1854 (Berkeley, 1963), 126–28. Buxton's descendants skated over his involvement with this committee, and with the missionary activist, Dr John Philip, from the Cape Colony. See, for example, the 1925 introduction by Earl Buxton to C. Buxton, Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Baronet with selections from his correspondence (London, 1925), xix. Z. Laidlaw, 'Integrating Metropolitan, Colonial and Imperial Histories – The Aborigines Select Committee of 1835–7', in J. Evans and T. Banivanua-Mar (eds.), Writing Colonial History: Comparative Perspectives (Melbourne, 2002), 87–108. D. Philips, 'Evangelicals, Aborigines and "Land Rights": A Critique of Henry Reynolds on the Select Committee on Aborigines', Australian Studies 17 (2002), 147–65. Lester, Imperial Networks, ch.5; Z. Laidlaw, 'Networks, Patronage and Information in Colonial Governance: Britain, New South Wales and the Cape Colony, 1826–1843', D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 2001, 220–46. Two who have noted the complexities of the authorship of the select committee's report are P.M. Pugh, 'Introduction', TFB; and Elbourne, 'To Colonize the Mind', 304–07; and idem, Blood Ground: Colonialism, Missions and the Contest for Christianity in the Cape Colony and Britain, 1799–1853 (Montreal and Kingston, 2002), 283, 285. Lester does note that Anna Gurney compiled a 'digest of … letters' for the campaign, although he incorrectly identifies her as T.F. Buxton's sister-in-law, Imperial Networks, 108. Pretorius, British Humanitarians, 127; Oliver Barclay, Thomas Fowell Buxton and the Liberation of Slaves (York, 2001), 59, 80; Howard Temperley, White Dreams, Black Africa: The Antislavery Expedition to the River Niger 1841–1842 (New Haven and London, 1991), 10–11, 18. Most of the letters retained in the Buxton papers were sent from London to Norfolk, although others can be found in several nineteenth-century published volumes, primarily, E. MacInnes (ed.), Extracts from Priscilla Johnston's Journal and Letters (Carlisle, 1862); Memorials of Hannah Lady Buxton from Papers collected by her granddaughters at Colne House printed for private circulation (London, 1883); and Augustus J.C. Hare, The Gurneys of Earlham (London, 1895). On women's general responsibility for maintaining family networks, see Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780–1850 (London, 1987), 280–81. Amanda Vickery, 'Introduction', in idem (ed.), Women, Privilege and Power: British Politics, 1750 to the Present (Stanford, 2001), 5, 52. Kathryn Gleadle and Sarah Richardson, 'Introduction: The Petticoat in Politics: Women and Authority', in idem (eds.), Women in British Politics 1760–1860: The Power of the Petticoat (Basingstoke, 2000), 8–9. C. Midgley, 'Introduction', in idem (ed.), Gender and Imperialism (Manchester, 1998), 2–3, 6. See also C. Midgley, Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780–1870 (London, 1992); C. Midgley, 'From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament: British Women and the Evangelical Campaign against Sati in India, 1813–30', in Gleadle and Richardson (eds.), Women in British Politics, 74–92. Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes; Catherine Hall, White, Male and Middle-Class: Explorations in Feminism and History (Cambridge, 1992); Vickery (ed.), Women, Privilege and Power; Gleadle and Richardson, Women in British Politics; Kathryn Gleadle, British Women in the Nineteenth Century (Basingstoke, 2001); Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus (eds.), Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities (London and New York, 1997). 'Priscilla Buxton's account of the liberation of the Hottentots', 1833, TFB, vol.13, 107; J. Philip to T.F. Buxton, 30 May 1834, vol.13, 155–56. See also Elbourne, Blood Ground, 243–46. For the relative roles of metropolitan and colonial legislation in Khoi 'emancipation', see Andrew Ross, John Philip (1775–1851): Missions, Race and Politics in South Africa (Aberdeen, 1986), 105–10. J.B. Peires, The House of Phalo: A History of the Xhosa People in the Days of their Independence (Berkeley, 1981); Mostert, Frontiers; Galbraith, Reluctant Empire. T. Buxton to Thomas Pringle, 14 Jan. 1834, TFB, vol.12, 151. P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 22 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 95; T. Buxton to Philip, 16 Sept. 1834, TFB, vol.13, 211–12; James Stephen to T. Buxton, 4 Nov. 1834, TFB, vol.13, 258–59. Glenelg was an attentive churchgoer, vice-president of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), and the son of Charles Grant whose Observations on the Asiatic State (1793) promoted the ideal of a universal Christian citizenship. Richard Brent has written that Sir George Grey was 'the Evangelical equivalent of Gladstone': Liberal Anglican Politics: Whiggery, Religion, and Reform 1830–1841 (Oxford, 1987), 128. James Stephen was a prominent anti-slavery campaigner from a Clapham Sect family devoted to that cause; his father was a founder of the CMS. Ross describes this failure of communications as 'one of the most extraordinary episodes of British colonial history', John Philip, 137. On the Colonial Office's unease about Philip, see Stephen's minute on Ellis to Glenelg, CO 48/169, fos.353–54, National Archives (formerly Public Record Office), London; Ross, John Philip, 144. Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, xxiv (1 July 1834), 1061–63. Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, xxix (14 July 1835), 549–53. Committee members' attendance at the hearings was quite irregular. In 1836 and 1837 the average attendance was seven. Only Buxton, Lushington, Johnston, John Bagshaw, William Gladstone, Charles Hindley, Henry Wilson, Sir Rufane Donkin and Edward Baines could be described as regular attendees. Buxton was planning which witnesses to call, which questions to ask, which government papers to demand, and which newspapers to acquire, six months before moving for the committee. T.F. Buxton to Thomas Pringle (of the Anti-Slavery Society), 5 Dec. 1833, TFB, vol.12, 145a. Buxton, Memoirs, 186; H. Reynolds, Law of the Land, 84–86; Milliss, Waterloo Creek, 226–27; Mostert, Frontiers, 738–39, 801–02. John Philip to T. Buxton, 22 Jan. 1835; 17 Feb. 1835; 1 May 1835; 23 May 1835; 26 May 1835; 29 May 1835; 30 May 1835; 1 July 1835, CO 48/165, fos.110–31, 132–48, 152–69, 190–93, 196–98, 200–07, 209–14, 215–27. T. Buxton to Zachary Macaulay, 1 April 1836, TFB, vol.15, 45. Twenty-seven of 46 witnesses were questioned exclusively on the Cape Colony. D. Eastwood, '"Amplifying the Province of the Legislature": The Flow of Information and the English State in the Early Nineteenth Century', Historical Research, 62 (1989), 285. After a committee meeting on 24 Feb. 1837 which voted that the Report be printed, Gladstone and Bagshaw engineered a vote on 27 Feb. demanding that the committee be reconvened. Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index, PP 1837 VII, 2–3. A. Johnston to A. Gurney, 24 Feb. 1837; P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 28 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 190, 196–97. Glenelg to D'Urban, 26 Dec. 1835, PP 1836 XXXIX. On Buxton's representations to the Colonial Office, see Laidlaw, 'Networks, Patronage and Information', 230–32. See ibid., 235, n.188. For a full discussion of the envoys' efforts, ibid., 125–40. Ibid., 241–46. Buxton's son, Charles, published his Memoirs of his father in 1848. See also R.H. Mottram, Buxton the Liberator (London, n.d.); Barclay, Thomas Fowell Buxton; F.C. Stuart, 'A Critical Edition of the Correspondence of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart, with an account of his career to 1823', M.A. thesis (2 vols.), University of London, 1957. E. Isichei, Victorian Quakers (Oxford, 1970), 1–4, 7–8, and passim. See also Augustus Hare, The Gurneys of Earlham (London, 1895). I. Bradley, The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians (London, 1976); B. Hilton, The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought 1785–1865 (Oxford, 1988). Buxton's own list of his useful parliamentary campaigns included prison discipline, 'burning widows', 'hottentots', fairs, lotteries, slavery, the slave trade, Mauritius, 'aborigines', and the restoration of land to the Xhosa: TFB, vol.16, 91e. In the Colonial Office his connections included James Stephen, Thomas Spring Rice, Sir George Grey (the MP and future home secretary, not the colonial governor) and Lord Glenelg. Colonial correspondents included: the Quaker traveller, James Backhouse; George Arthur, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land; Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta; and James Busby, the British Resident in New Zealand. Anna was both a cousin of Thomas (their mothers were sisters) and Hannah (their fathers were brothers). Throughout this article, members of the extended Buxton family are referred to by their first names, except where this would cause confusion. Isichei has argued that evangelical Quakers, like the Gurneys, felt closer to non-Quaker evangelicals than to quietists within the Quaker church: Isichei, Victorian Quakers, 11. Pugh, 'Introduction', iii. Priscilla's journal describes the form of her education and her attitude towards it throughout the 1820s, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 4–40. See also Hannah Buxton's introduction, ibid., vi. On Peter Bassière's letters, see 9 May 1829, ibid., 39. See especially Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 5, 93–94, 202; F. Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century England (Oxford, 1980), 27–33, 37–41. Ibid., 42; Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 83–86; K.D. Reynolds, Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain (Oxford, 1998), 6–7, 122–26, 153–58, 176–77, 220. Midgley, 'Introduction', in Gender and Imperialism, 2–3, 6; Midgley, 'From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament', 77–80, 85, 87. Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 5, 94, 200, 202–03. P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 7 May 1833, 16 May 1833, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 60–61. Ibid., 132–33. The Cottage Ladies also ran a local school. Norma Virgoe and Susan Yaxley (eds.), The Banville Diaries: Journals of a Norfolk Gamekeeper 1822–44 (London, 1986), 38, 139; Hare, Gurneys, ii, 56; Barclay, Thomas Fowell Buxton, 80. Banville, the Northrepps' gamekeeper, for example, wondered privately whether a little more effort might not be spared for the poor at home. Larry Banville, 30 July 1834, 1 Aug. 1834, Virgoe and Yaxley, Banville Diaries, 134. For example, P. Buxton to A. Gurney, 19 April 1833, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 58. Such assistance is well-documented both for the Buxtons and for other cases. Barclay, Thomas Fowell Buxton, 59, 79, 80, 109, 128; Hare, Gurneys, ii, 5, 73; Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 81, 121; Midgley, 'From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament', 76. On political hostesses, see Reynolds, Aristocratic Women. P. Buxton to C. Hankinson, 17 Feb. 1831, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 46. P. Buxton's journal, entries for 13 March 1836, 6 July 1836, 14 Feb. 1839, ibid., 100, 106, 145. T. Buxton to A. Gurney, 24 Nov. 1835, TFB, vol.2, 85; Buxton, Memoirs, 176–77. The women were also responsible for the collations that form the Rhodes House collection. The Memoirs seldom acknowledge the contribution of the female members of the family. Gender bias in men's philanthropic memoirs is discussed by Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 2. Pugh, 'Introduction', TFB, ii. H. Buxton to S. Buxton and A. Gurney, 21 March 1836, 17 June 1836, TFB, vol.15, 30, 70; H. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 10 May 1833, TFB, vol.2, 255–56. For example, H. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 10 May 1833, TFB, vol.2, 255–56. H. Buxton to the Cottage, 10 June 1837, TFB, vol.15, 312; H. Buxton to the Cottage, 26 March 1836, TFB, vol.15, 27. On Cobbett's daughter, see Priscilla's journal, 21 Jan. 1823, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 9. On Elizabeth Fry, see entry for 16 Dec. 1832, ibid., 54. T. Buxton, quoted in Memorials of Hannah Buxton, 109. Priscilla was, 'after [Zachary] Macaulay, my best human helper', Buxton quoted in 1833, Banville Diaries, 134. T. Buxton to P. Johnston, 13 May 1837, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 117. Ibid., 16–24. P. Buxton to J. Philip, 20 Sept. 1833, TFB, vol.12, 125. For family discussion of a letter that Priscilla wrote, but which was attributed to Thomas, see T. Buxton to H. Buxton, 30 Oct. 1832, TFB, vol.1, 370. In June 1833 Thomas was embarrassed when the American anti-slavery campaigner Garrison personally thanked him for a supportive open letter he had written to The Liberator. Thomas could not remember the letter (written only two months earlier) because Priscilla had actually written it. P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 29 June 1833, TFB Supplement, vol.1, 178–82. This continued after Priscilla's marriage, with Thomas's appeal for help in writing an address to the inhabitants of Africa in 1840 typical: 'you know very well that such flights never proceeded from my pen, though they went by my name. Could you give me a few ideas?' T. Buxton to P. Johnston, 25 Feb. 1840, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 157. 'Montgomery's Missionary Voyages', Edinburgh Review, 57 (April 1833), 80–95, attributed to Priscilla Buxton by Wellesley's Index; P. Buxton, 'The Liberation of the Hottentots', [1833] TFB, vol.13, 107–09. The numerous newspaper clippings and extracts in the files maintained by Sarah Maria and Anna indicate that the whole family was familiar with political events. P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 12 July 1834, ibid., 87-89; P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 22 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 95; P. Johnston to her brothers, 11 April 1835, TFB, vol.13, 445; P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 12 May 1835, TFB, vol.14, 33. P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 3 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 347–49. See also P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 12 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 87–89. On those occasions when Thomas or Andrew's opinion was repeated, Priscilla made this clear. See, for example, P. Johnston to the Cottage, 3 March 1837, TFB, vol.15, 211–12. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 28 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 199; P. Johnston to S. Buxton and A. Gurney, 13 April 1837, TFB, vol.15, 243c–e. Priscilla recorded sitting 'by Mr Johnston, a young Scotch M.P.', 1 April 1832, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 52. Andrew was quickly assimilated into Buxton life. Elizabeth Fry spent time with the Johnstons shortly after their marriage in Glasgow, and reassured Thomas and Hannah that not only were the two well-suited, but that Andrew was 'so simple so sound and so liberal a Christian I truly and in heart unite with him … and may say though I was a friend to the connection I had no idea what a valuable and truly agreeable addition he would make to our family circle'. E. Fry to H. Buxton, 13 Sept. 1834, Papers of Thomas Fowell Buxton, Rhodes House Library, MSS. Brit. Emp. s.558, 1/5, f.15. 31 July 1834, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 72. For example, A. Gurney to P. Buxton, 12 May 1834, ibid., 67; S. Buxton to P. Buxton, 23 June 1834, ibid., 69. Hare, Gurneys, ii, 55–56. Anna's confinement was a result of poliomyelitis. Pugh, 'Introduction', ii. Virgoe and Yaxley, Banville Diaries, 138–40. Described, for example, in their letters to Priscilla in May and June 1834, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 67–71. The attribution comes from Mottram, Buxton the Liberator, 81–82. Catherine Gurney wrote to her younger sister Hannah (later Hannah Buxton) of Anna and Sarah Maria in 1810: 'I scarcely ever had two pupils so rich mentally, or so interested in all our pursuits', 29 Nov. 1810, in Hare, Gurneys, i, 217. P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 9 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 375. T. Buxton to Thomas Pringle, 14 Jan. 1834, 148–51. See also T. Buxton to Pringle, 5 Dec. 1833, 21 Dec. 1833, TFB, vol.12, 145a, 147a–b; P. Buxton to Philip, 20–21 Sept. 1833, continued 5 Dec. 1833, ibid, 125–45. The House of Commons motion was made on 24 Aug. 1833. James Stephen to T. Buxton, 28 Jan. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 185c. P. Buxton to J. Philip, 21 Sept. 1833, TFB, vol.12, 127. P. Buxton to J. Philip, 5 Dec. 1833, ibid., 144. Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, xxiv (1 July 1834), 1061–63. This has been acknowledged by several historians. See Hare, Gurneys, ii, 73; Barclay, Thomas Fowell Buxton, 79. Thomas wrote 'Never shall I have such another Companion, Friend, Counsellor, Comforter, Helper. Surely never again.' T.F. Buxton to P. Johnston, 2 Aug. 1834, reproduced in Stuart, 'A Critical Edition', ii, 275. See P. Buxton to A. Gurney, 25 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 98–99. While Pugh suggests there was a 'slight rift' over an aspect of the anti-slavery campaign shortly before Priscilla's marriage, the discussions reported in Priscilla's letters do not seem more antagonistic than the normal level of family debate. Pugh's other comment, that Thomas was distressed by the imminent loss of Priscilla, seems more plausible. T. Buxton to J. Philip, 16 Sept. 1834, TFB, vol.13, 216; J. Philip to P. Johnston, 28 Oct. 1834, TFB, vol.13, 332–33; Pugh, 'Introduction', ii. He told her that 'the affairs of this continent are lost, Miss Buxton is married and Mr Buxton cannot read my hand writing'. Philip to P. Johnston, 28 Oct. 1834, TFB, vol.13, 331–33. S. Buxton to A. and P. Johnston, 24 Aug. 1834, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 79. On her 'humdrum' life in Scotland, see P. Johnston to Catherine Gurney, 26 Dec. 1834, ibid., 88–89. For example, J. Philip to A. Gurney, 15 Oct. 1837, A. Gurney to J. Philip, 15 Oct. 1837, TFB, vol.16, 135a-b, 136–38. T. Buxton to A. Gurney, 24 Nov. 1835, TFB, vol.2, 85–86. Ellis conveyed information to the Colonial Office both directly and via the Buxtons. Ellis's correspondence with the Colonial Office can be found in CO 48/163; while Philip's correspondence with the LMS is in their archives at SOAS (CWM, South Africa: incoming letters, 1834–37, Boxes 14–15). On the connection between the Buxtons and Ellis, see: P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 8 Apr. 1835, TFB, vol.13, 439; T. Buxton to S. Buxton, 28 Sept. 1835, TFB, vol.14, 105; T. Buxton to W. Ellis, 10 Oct. 1835, 27 Jan. 1836, TFB, vol.14, 108, 359–60; T. Buxton to Lord Glenelg, 10 Oct. 1835, TFB, vol.14, 109. For example, A. Gurney to J. Philip, 30 Sept. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 110–12. For example, T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 28 March 1835, TFB, vol.2, 74; P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 10 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 377. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 17 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 393. T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 28 March 1835, TFB, vol.2, 73–74; P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 12 May 1835, TFB, vol.14, 35. T. Buxton to H. Buxton, 5 Feb. 1836, TFB, vol.15, 9. T. Buxton to H. Buxton, 19 Aug. 1835, TFB, vol.14, 83. He dined at Devonshire Street on several occasions in the early 1830s. See P. Buxton to S. Buxton, 16 May 1833, TFB, vol.2, 275; see also P. Buxton to A. Gurney, 25 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 100. M. Nash, Bailie's Party of 1820 Settlers: A Collective Experience in Emigration (Cape Town, 1982), 68-72; Ross, John Philip, passim. D'Urban's cause was hampered by his lack of official communications, and by his misjudging of metropolitan politics. Laidlaw, 'Networks, Patronage and Information', 122–40, 236–46. T. Buxton to A. Gurney, 24 Nov. 1835, TFB, vol.2, 81–83. T. Buxton to Zachary Macaulay, 1 April 1836, TFB, vol.15, 45. T. Buxton to the Cottage, 18 March 1837, TFB, vol.15, 225–26. Andrew was born on 23 May 1835. T. Buxton to his sons, 3 April 1835, TFB, vol.13, 191. T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 2 June 1836, TFB, vol.15, 54; T. Buxton to H. Buxton, 21 Aug. 1835, TFB, vol.14, 831b. The family workload increased in 1836 after Thomas successfully moved for a select committee on the apprenticeship system. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 10 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 378-80; P. Johnston to A. Gurney and S.M. Buxton, spring 1836, TFB, vol.15, 32. P. Johnston to her brothers, 11 April 1835, TFB, vol.13, 445. P. Johnston to Richenda Buxton, A. Gurney and S. Buxton at the Cottage, 27 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 195. P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 9 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 374–75. P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 2 July 1834, ibid., 75. See P. Johnston to S. Buxton and A. Gurney, 6 Feb. 1836, TFB, vol.15, 12; P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 12 July 1834, TFB, vol.13, 87–88; P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 28 April 1835, TFB, vol.2, 289. T. Buxton to [S. Buxton], 28 Sept. 1835, TFB, vol.14, 105. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 24 Nov. 1835, TFB, vol.2, 87–88. S. Buxton to P. Johnston, March 1838, 134–35. Anna was by then engaged in writing Buxton's pamphlets on the slave trade in West Africa. See, for example, P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 12 May 1835, vol.14, 33. A. Johnston to A. Gurney, 3 March 1837, 8 June 1837, 9 June 1837, 10 June 1837, TFB, vol.15, 207a–c, 309a, 311b–d, 311e; P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 9 March 1835, TFB, vol.13, 375. T. Buxton to P. Johnston, 30 Nov. 1834, reproduced in Stuart, 'A Critical Edition', ii, 284–89; Entries in Priscilla's journal, 13 March 1836, 6 July 1836, 14 Feb. 1839, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 100, 106, 145. P. Johnston to S. Buxton, 28 June 1836, TFB, vol.15, 64. Undated statement by Sarah Maria Buxton, TFB, vol.15, 171. T. Buxton to Edward Buxton, 17 Jan. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 171. H. Buxton to her sons, 23 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 189. J. Philip to A. Johnston, Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 189e. P. Johnston to the cottage, 3 March 1837, 14 March 1837, TFB, vol.15, 211–12, 220; A. Johnston to the cottage, 6 March 1837, TFB, vol.15, 212. Only seven committee members attended the crucial meeting. William Gladstone and John Bagshaw managed to persuade the moderate reformer, Henry Wilson, and (most disturbingly for Buxton) Charles Lushington to support their call that the hearings be reconvened. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 28 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 196–99. T. Buxton to the cottage, 3 March 1837, 18 March 1837, vol.15, 209, 227. A. Johnston to A. Gurney, 3 March 1837, ibid., 207a–b. T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 4 May 1837, ibid., 275b–c. T. Buxton to A. Gurney and S. Buxton, 6 June 1837, ibid., 307a–b. A. Gurney to J. Philip, 15 Oct. 1837, TFB, vol.16, 136. William IV was gravely ill. His death entailed a dissolution of parliament. T. Buxton to the cottage, 17 June 1837, TFB, vol.15, 319c–f. D. Coates, W. Ellis and J. Beecham, Christianity, the means of civilization shown in evidence given before a committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines (London, 1837). They were quickly republished as a single volume, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy (London, 1839). F.C. Stuart, 'A Critical Edition', i, iv, attributed 'several chapters' of the work to Priscilla, but letters written by Priscilla and Sarah Maria suggest that Anna, not Priscilla, was the primary author of the two books. See S. Buxton to P. Johnston, March 1838, 12 May 1839, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 135, 146; P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 17 May 1838, ibid., 135–36; P. Johnston to H. Buxton, 27 Aug. 1838, 21 June 1839, ibid., 138, 147. T. Buxton to A. Johnston, 21 July 1840, 8 March 1841, reproduced in Stuart, 'A Critical Edition', ii, 416, 439. Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 121–22. P. Johnston to Catherine Gurney, 20 July 1840, Memorials of Hannah Buxton, 161. Temperley, White Dreams, Black Africa. Temperley observes that even Buxton's obituary in the Anti-Slavery Reporter ended with emancipation in 1833, ibid., 164. P. Johnston to E.N. Buxton, 17 Feb. 1848, Priscilla Johnston's Journal, 181–82; H. Buxton to A. Gurney, 23 April 1846, in Memorials of Hannah Buxton, 175. J. Philip to A. Johnston, Thursday, Feb. 1837, ibid., 189c; T. Buxton to Zachary Macaulay, 1 April 1836, TFB, vol.15, 45. Sir George Stephen, in his Anti-Slavery Recollections: In a Series of Letters Addressed to Mrs Beecher Stowe (London, 1854), 197, described Priscilla as Thomas's 'guardian angel', quoted in Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 81. P. Johnston to A. Gurney, 28 Feb. 1837, TFB, vol.15, 197. J. Philip to A. Johnston, Thursday, Feb. 1837, ibid., 189e–f. Women's involvement in politics aroused great suspicion from many who would otherwise have supported the committee's aims and conclusions. See Isichei, Victorian Quakers, 109; Prochaska, Women and Philanthropy, 25–26. William Wilberforce thought 'the warfare of political life' inappropriate for women. R.I. and S. Wilberforce, Life of William Wilberforce (London, 1838), v, 264; Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 48; Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 429. Peter Mandler, 'From Almack's to Willis's: Aristocratic Women and Politics, 1815–1867', in Vickery (ed.), Women, Privilege and Power, 157. Midgley, Women Against Slavery, 48, 93. Midgley, 'From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament'. On the changing nature of parliamentary inquiries, see Eastwood, 'Amplifying', 285–94; D. Eastwood, 'Men, Morals and the Machinery of Social Legislation 1790–1840', Parliamentary History, 13 (1994), 194, 197, 204.