Beilby Porteus Quotes

Beilby Porteus, successively Bishop of Chester and of London was an Anglican reformer and leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously challenge the Church's position on slavery. He was ordained as a priest in 1757, and in 1762 was appointed as domestic chaplain to Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, acting as his personal assistant at Lambeth Palace for six years. It was during these years that it is thought he became more aware of the conditions of the enslaved Africans in the American colonies and the British West Indies. In 1769 Beilby Porteus was appointed as chaplain to King George III. He is listed as one of the lenten preachers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall in 1771, 1773 and 1774. He was also Rector of Lambeth from 1767–77, and later Master of St Cross, Winchester 1776–77. In 1787, Porteus was translated to the bishopric of London on the advice of Prime Minister William Pitt, a position he held until his death in 1809.