Statue Of William Wilberforce In Garden Of Wilberforce House

Statue of William Wilberforce in the garden at the front of Wilberforce House Museum on the south-east side of High Street, Hull.

The statue is a life-size standing figure in ashlar, supported by a short column and mounted on a square granite pedestal. It was completed in 1883–4 by William Day Keyworth junior (1843–1902), a celebrated Hull sculptor. The pedestal is inscribed: "William Wilberforce / Born in Hull 24 August 1759 / Died in London 29 July 1833 / Member of Parliament for Hull / From 1780 to 1784 / Member of Parliament for Yorkshire / From 1784 to 1812 // England owes to him the Reformation of Manners / The World owes to him the Abolition of Slavery".

William Wilberforce was born in the house that later became the Museum. His family were prosperous Hull merchants. After his father's death in 1768, he was sent to live with relatives in London and Wimbledon, but returned to Hull after about two years and made his home in the High Street house for the rest of his early life. He attended the grammar school and later studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where he resolved to pursue a political career. Elected Member of Parliament for Hull in 1780 and for Yorkshire in 1784, he adopted an independent political stance from the outset. In 1785 he experienced a conversion to evangelical Christianity and resolved to devote his life to God. Counselled by the evangelical minister John Newton and by his friend Prime Minister William Pitt that he could best serve God through politics, Wilberforce was persuaded in 1787 by prominent abolitionists to champion their cause in Parliament. While Thomas Clarkson and others gathered evidence against the slave trade and mobilised public opinion, Wilberforce worked ceaselessly in Parliament, introducing bills to end the slave trade and speaking in their support. In 1788 he secured a select committee to examine the slave trade. After fierce opposition and frequent setbacks, the Foreign Slave Trade Abolition Bill received royal assent on 25 March 1807. Wilberforce continued to strive for the abolition of slavery itself, joining others to form the African Institution in 1807 and the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823. He remained in the House of Commons until 1825. On 26 July 1833 Wilberforce heard that the Emancipation Bill had passed its final reading; he died on 29 July and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument by Samuel Joseph was erected in 1840.

The statue was originally placed in the City Hall and was presented to the town in January 1884 by Henry Briggs, sheriff of Hull 1881–2. The commission marked Briggs's time as sheriff, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of Wilberforce's death in 1883 and of the Slavery Abolition Act, which came into force in 1834. The unveiling was performed by the Right Reverend Ernest Roland Wilberforce, grandson of the abolitionist. The statue was moved to its present position in the garden of Wilberforce House Museum in 1912.