The Close Encounters of Henry Dundas and William Wilberforce: A remarkable friendship between political foes
“After dining another day with Henry Dundas they talked together the whole night through.”
— Wilberforce biographer John Pollock
“Dropped in one day at Dundas’s, and … after staying till June 28th , I set off from town with my sister”
“sitting up all night singing…danced till five in the morning.”
— diary of William Wilberforce
Historians have extensively documented the public disputes between Henry Dundas and William Wilberforce over their views on the best way to abolish the slave trade. This dispute, however, was just part of their relationship. Hidden in Wilberforce’s papers and other records lies a story of a surprising friendship.
Only 15% of Wilberforce’s journals and diaries have been published, and Henry Dundas was not known to keep a personal journal, making it difficult to determine the full measure of their friendship. Nonetheless, what is available reveals interactions that were often fun, sometimes warm, and occasionally poignant.
Timeline:
1783:
Dundas and Wilberforce became neighbours in the early 1780s when both moved to the village of Wimbledon, on the outskirts of London. Dundas was Scotland’s Lord Advocate, and Wilberforce a recently-elected MP.
By 1783, they were spending evenings dining together. [1][2]
1784:
On March 7, 1784, Wilberforce wrote of Dundas taking him to a posh dinner party at which the special guest was Sarah Siddons, one of London’s leading actresses:
“went with Dundas to Mr. Seaton’s to sup with Mrs. Siddons — Sir C and Lady Dorothy. Bed ½ past 2.”[3]
A few days later, Wilberforce delivered his first public speech on the abolition of the slave trade. Scottish lawyer and intellectual James Boswell attended. He later praised the speech to Dundas, who immediately wrote to Wilberforce to share the details of Boswell’s praise [4]:
1785/86:
Wilberforce frequently joined Dundas for what he described as “the festivities in which Dundas delighted at Wimbledon and Richmond.” These occasions included “sitting up all night singing — shirked Duchess of Gordon, at Almack’s — danced till five in the morning.” [5]
Wilberforce was at this time undergoing a conversion to Christian evangelism, and in 1785 he began to withdraw from such merriments. By the end of 1786, had sold his property in Wimbledon and rented a house in the heart of London to be closer to fellow members of the Clapham Sect.
1787:
Dundas invited Wilberforce to a dinner party, at which the guest of honour was Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations). Other guests included the pro-abolition Prime Minister William Pitt (the younger), and William Grenville, who later became Prime Minister and oversaw passage of the anti-slave trade bill in 1807.
Events of that evening are well-known. Smith arrived late. When he entered, the entire room of guests stood to welcome him. As he apologized and asked them to take their seats, Prime Minister Pitt exclaimed “We will stand till you are seated, for we are all your scholars!”[6]
Later that year Wilberforce joined Dundas at a dinner party hosted by Lord Chatham (John Pitt, brother to then-Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger).[7]
1789-1791:
Biographer Reginald Coupland refers to multiple entries in Wilberforce’s diaries over two years after his return to London in late 1789, “plunging at once into a dinner-circle of Cabinet Ministers” that included Henry Dundas.[8]
February 1791: Dundas and Wilberforce dine with other abolitionists, including Charles Grant (Anti-Slavery Society founding member, later appointed by Dundas as Director of the East India Company), William Grenville, and Prime Minister Pitt. [8a]
1792:
This was the year when Wilberforce and Dundas first clashed publicly over the abolition of the slave trade — with Wilberforce seeking immediate abolition and Dundas saying no abolition law would succeed unless the process was gradual and supported by the West Indians. Ironically, it was also the year when Wilberforce returned to his earlier habit of frequent socializing with Dundas, including staying overnight at his home.
January 1792: Wilberforce describes two dinner parties with Dundas, including:
On the 21st: “A long discussion after dinner … a most excellent man of business….his diligence shames me.”[10]
June 1792: Six weeks after the final vote on ‘gradual abolition,’ they again dined together, and Wilberforce spent a few days at Dundas’s home:
“Upon the 16th I dined at Lord Camden’s, — Grenville, Chatham, Pitt, Dundas, I rejoice that I am now likely to have leisure for quiet thought; how much do I stand in need of it![11]
Dropped in one day at Dundas’s. … After staying till June 28th , I set off from town with my sister for Bath.”[12]
5 September 1792: “went on to Hamels — Smith, Pitt, and Dundas expecting me ; found also Pepper and Lady Arden.”[13]
19 September 1792: “Dined with Pitt, where Dundas and Shore.”[14]
In October Wilberforce wrote that Dundas had a “generous and high spirit.”[15]
1793:
In the year that France declared war on Britain, Wilberforce continued to attend social events at Dundas’s home:
“Pitt’s birthday, (May 28). … Dined Dundas’ (with Pitt and friends) and up too late.”[16]
1794:
On December 5th he referred to a meaningful conversation with Dundas:
“walk’d 1 ½ Hour with Dundas & talk’d fully over the whole political State of Things.”[17]
1796:
1796 marked another public clash, with Wilberforce again seeking immediate abolition, and Dundas warning that a vote for abolition would jeopardize attempts to negotiate peace with France.
Social contact, however, continued as before. Wilberforce’s son Samuel Wilberforce cited 11 such events. A notable example occurred in May, when Wilberforce introduced a Foreign Slave Trade bill and the next day joined Dundas for dinner.
Dundas and Pitt called on Wilberforce at his London home around that time, but he was too ill to see them.[21]
Wilberforce stayed for two nights with Dundas in Wimbledon before Christmas, when they were joined by fellow abolitionists and members of the Clapham Sect.
22 Dec 1796: “House [of Commons] — went home with Dundas and Pitt, and staid awhile discussing — Mission business in hand” [19]
23 Dec 1796: “breakfasted early with Dundas and Eliot on mission business ; Dundas complying, and appointing us to dinner again, where Grant and David Scott also — sat long.”[20]
1797:
Dundas assisted Wilberforce with plans for an international convention to abolish the slave trade:
“I have an idea with which I am very busy, of availing ourselves of the circumstance that all the slave trading powers … will be brought together, for trying at a general convention to abolish. Dundas is favourable to it.”
“Very busy seeing Pitt and Dundas about Abolition convention plan and East India missions — pleased with Dundas’s candour.”[22]
1799/1800:
In 1799, Wilberforce was spending most of his personal time with members of the Clapham Sect. He also worked behind the scenes with Dundas and Pitt, who were negotiating with the West Indian planters for a five-year suspension of the slave trade. A deal seemed to be close when the planters suddenly backed out. Wilberforce wrote that Dundas was greatly angered at the planters’ sudden reversal but, despite Wilberforce’s entreaties, refused to force the measure on them.[23]
Wilberforce also expressed bitterness when Dundas rejected a plan for the Clapham Sect to send Christian missionaries to India.
Although he was a key figure in this close-knit religious community, Wilberforce sometimes longed for the boisterous company of his old friends:
“This is the day in which Pitt, Dundas, P. Arden, and Steele are at Hamels. I am disposed to wish myself with them. I find that even here in religious society I can have an earthly mind.”[24]
A short time later he attended a lively party at Dundas’s home, but found himself unable to join in the fun:
“Pitt’s birthday — low-spirited — dined Dundas’ great entertainment — Duke and Duchess of Gordon and others. I could not assimilate, and all flat and cold” [25]
1801:
Wilberforce privately praised Dundas for standing up to King George III and opposing the king’s choice for a patronage appointment:
“The King recommended a nobleman for office — Dundas refused, saying, ‘none but who fit could be placed in those offices.’”[26a]
1804:
Dundas was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in May 1804, and now sat in the House of Lords. In June, Wilberforce appealed to their long friendship, and asked him to try to persuade the West Indians to support a new resolution for abolition:
“I am sure my dear Lordship, you must yourself be sensible that the West Indians have greatly mistaken your real meaning…& while they ought to have considered you as only wishing to prevent their sufferings from a sudden change, they have on the contrary conceiv’d you to have been defending the present system as meaning that it should continue forever . . .”
“Will you, my dear Lord M, excuse my saying, that, having from almost the commencement of my public life, been honoured with your friendly regard . . . it has long been matter of great pain to me, that in the grand object of my Parliamentary existence, you should have been the one to oppose and defeat my wishes. . . .” [26b]
Surprisingly, given the personal tone of the letter, there is no record of Dundas’s response. Wilberforce’s sons later wrote that Prime Minister Pitt and Foreign Minister William Grenville told Wilberforce he would have to wait a year. Wilberforce reluctantly agreed to withdraw his resolution.[26c]
1805:
Wilberforce had by now distanced himself from Dundas while immersing himself in the activities of the Clapham Sect.
Dundas (now Lord Melville) was hit by a scandal over the alleged misuse of funds of a subordinate under his direct supervision, and a motion to authorize impeachment proceedings was put to Parliament. A decade of frustration over Dundas’s refusal to support ‘immediate’ abolition boiled over. Wilberforce passionately denounced his old friend, in a speech that is believed to have swayed 40 votes. The result was that the House was evenly split. The Speaker broke the tie by voting to send the allegations against Dundas to an impeachment trial in the House of Lords.
Wilberforce’s public fervor soon subsided. When he was asked to sign the deputation needed to pursue the impeachment, he declined:
“Is it to be expected of me that I am to stifle the natural feelings of the heart, and not even to shed a a tear over the very sentence I am pronouncing? […]
Must I join the triumph over a fallen friend ?”[27]
Prime Minister Pitt was devastated by these events, and his already failing health began a rapid decline. Allies of Pitt and Dundas blamed Wilberforce for Pitt’s physical ailments, but he rejected the accusations (“It did not hurt Pitt’s health”) and showed no regret:
“I feel hurt at having been thought to wound, yet I have acted rightly, and that is the only stay.” [28]
1806:
The prosecution failed to prove that Dundas had misused public funds and the House of Lords acquitted him on all charges.
Pitt died before learning of the acquittals. Dundas resumed his place in the House of Lords and on Privy Council, but never returned to cabinet.
1810:
Despite Wilberforce’s near-lethal blow to Dundas’s political career, the warmth of the earlier friendship was not entirely extinguished. A chance encounter in 1810 brought a poignant close to a complicated friendship.
“We did not meet for a long time and all his connexions most violently abused me. About a year before he died, we met in the stone passage which leads from the Horse Guards to the Treasury. We came suddenly upon each other, just in the open part, where the light struck upon our faces. We saw one another, and at first I thought he was passing on, but he stopped and called out, ‘Ah Wilberforce, how do you do?’ And gave me a hearty shake by the hand. I would have given a thousand pounds for that shake. I never saw him afterwards.” [29]
More of our research on Henry Dundas and the abolition debate of the late 18th century can be found here: “The Missing Pieces”
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[1] Pollock, John, Wilberforce, New York: St. Martin’s. Press, 1978, p. 51, 52; R.I. Wilberforce et al, The Life of William Wilberforce, Seeley Burnside and Seeley, 1843, London, p. 28 https://books.google.ad/books?id=HvPHNVo4LqIC&hl=ca&pg=PA157#v=onepage&q=dundas&f=false
[2] Coupland, Reginald, Wilberforce, A Narrative, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923, p. 23. https://archive.org/details/wilberforcenarra00coupuoft/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
[3] Coupland, p, 23
[4] R.I. Wilberforce et al, The Life of William Wilberforce, Seeley Burnside and Seeley, 1843, London, p. 26 https://books.google.ad/books?id=HvPHNVo4LqIC&hl=ca&pg=PA157#v=onepage&q=dundas&f=false
[5] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 39
[6]Haldane, R. B. Life of Adam Smith.(1887) London: Walter Scott, p. 49 https://books.google.ca/books?id=1pWZdU9pQ9AC&dq=%22we%20are%20all%20your%20scholars%22&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q=your%20scholars&f=false. See also: Life of Adam Smith — Econlib
[7] Coupland, p. 41
[8] Coupland, p. 140. The author summarized diary entries for this period, without providing dates or details.
[8a] W. Fraser, The Chiefs of Grant, vol ii, London, Murray, 1838, p. 509
[9] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 326
[10] Lovat-Fraser, J.A., Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, Cambridge University Press, 1916, p. 95 http://ia800903.us.archive.org/32/items/henrydundasvisco00lovauoft/henrydundasvisco00lovauoft.pdf
[11] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 157
[12] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 157
[13] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 108
[14] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 108
[15] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 109. Also noted by “The Wilberforce Diaries” project, which said: “The manuscript diaries of William Wilberforce (in the Bodleian and Wilberforce House Museum) contain almost a million words and cover over half a century from 1779 to 1833. 85% of the text has never been published.” https://twitter.com/diariesproject?lang=en
[16] Coupland, p. 185
[17] Wilberforce Diaries Project: https://twitter.com/DiariesProject/status/1272813524373340161
[18]Wilberforce, Samuel, The Life of Wilberforce, vol II, 1838, pp 175–76
[18] Wilberforce, Samuel, The Life of Wilberforce, Revised and condensed, John Murray, London, 1868, at pp, 25, 27, 87, 99, 108, 115, 131, 165, 187, 207, 255.
[19] Ibid., p. 165
[20] Ibid., p 165
[21] Hague, William, William Wilberforce, The Life of the Great Anti-Slavery Campaigner, Harcourt, 2007, pp 260–261. See also pp 167, 206. https://archive.org/details/williamwilberfor00hagu
[22] R.I. Wilberforce et al, p. 162
[23] Letter from W Wilberforce to the Rev. T Gisborne, June 6, 1800, as quoted in R.I. Wilberforce, S Wilberforce, The Life of Wilberforce, Vol II, (London: John Murray, 1838) p. 368
[24] Coupland, p. 294
[25] Coupland, p. 294.
[26a] R.I. Wilberforce et al, III, p. 219
[26b] 144 NRS, Papers of the Dundas Family, GD51/1/435: Letter from William Wilberforce, 13 June 1804; R.I. Wilberforce et al, III, 180.
[26c] R.I. Wilberforce et al, III, 180–188.
[27] R.I. Wilberforce et al, III, pp 264-265
[28] R.I. Wilberforce et al, III p 223
[29] R.I. Wilberforce et al, pp 327–328.