Fowell Buxton

His father, also named Thomas Fowell Buxton, died young, leaving three sons and two daughters.

He lived at Belfield House, Weymouth, Dorset in the constituency he represented as an MP,[6] and later at Northrepps Hall in Norfolk, where he died aged 57,[7] In 1808, Buxton's Hanbury connections led to an appointment to work at the brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, London.

Although he was a member of the Church of England, Buxton attended Quaker meetings with some of the Gurneys, and so became involved in the social reform movement, in which Friends were prominent.

As an MP he worked for changes in prison conditions and criminal law and for the abolition of slavery, in which he was helped by his sister-in-law Louisa Gurney Hoare.

Other moves for which Buxton argued were the suppression of lotteries and abolition of suttee, the practice of burning widows in India.

[citation needed] In 1839, Buxton urged the British government to make treaties with African leaders to abolish the slave trade.

The government in turn backed the Niger expedition of 1841 (not including Buxton) put together by missionary organizations, which was also going to work on trade.

The British suffered such high mortality from fevers, with more than 25 per cent of the group dying rapidly, that the mission was cut short in 1841.

[13] On 16 June 1824, a meeting was held at Old Slaughter's Coffee House, St Martin's Lane, London, at which was created the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – it became the RSPCA when Queen Victoria gave royal assent in 1840.

[14][15] The 22 founding members included William Wilberforce, Richard Martin, Sir James Mackintosh, Basil Montagu and Reverend Arthur Broome.