Thomas Babington

A member of the Babington family, he was educated at Rugby School and St John's College, Cambridge[2] where he met William Wilberforce and other prominent anti-slavery agitators.

His home at Rothley Temple was regularly used by Wilberforce and associates for abolitionist meetings, and it was where the bill to abolish slavery was drafted.

[3] In addition to his anti-slavery work, he also offered to pay half the cost of smallpox inoculation for people in Rothley in 1784–5.

He set up a local Friendly Society to purchase corn for sale to the poor at a lower price to improve the lives and diet of his estate workers.

Thomas and Jean had six sons and four daughters: Babington died at Rothley Temple in 1837 at the age of 78, and is buried in the chapel there.