Benjamin Barron Wiffen (1794–1867) was an English Quaker businessman, bibliophile and biographer of early Spanish Protestant reformers.
Early life
The second son of John Wiffen, ironmonger, and his wife Elizabeth (née Pattison), he was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire; his elder brother was
Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen
Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1792–1836) was an English poet and writer, known as translator of Torquato Tasso.
Life
The eldest son of John Wiffen, an ironmonger, by his wife Elizabeth Pattison, both from Quaker backgrounds, he was born at Woburn, B ...
. He followed his brother to
Ackworth school
Ackworth School is an independent day and boarding school located in the village of High Ackworth, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school (or more accurately its Head) is a member ...
in 1803; on leaving in 1808 he went into his father's business. His mother Elizabeth was left widowed with a young family. Wiffen remained in business at Woburn till 1838, when his health failed, and he retired to Mount Pleasant,
Aspley Guise
Aspley Guise is a village and civil parish in the west of Central Bedfordshire, England. In addition to the village of Aspley Guise itself, the civil parish also includes part of the town of Woburn Sands, the rest of which is in the City of Milto ...
, near Woburn, with his mother and two unmarried sisters.
Josiah Forster
Josiah Forster (1782 – 27 June 1870) was an English teacher and philanthropist. He was an early member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839Jermyn Street, beginning a lifelong friendship. Wiffen attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in June as a delegate. In late 1840 or early 1841 Wiffen made his first visit to Spain with
George William Alexander
George William Alexander (1802–1890) was an English financier and philanthropist. He was the founding treasurer of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839. The American statesman Frederick Douglass said that he "has spent more t ...
, as a deputation to forward the abolitionist cause there.
In 1842 Wiffen accompanied Alexander a second time to Spain and Portugal. Correspondence between
John Scoble
John Scoble (January 16, 1799 – November 11, 1877) was a Congregational minister, British abolitionist and political figure in Canada West.
Biography
Scoble was born in Kingsbridge, England in 1799 and was educated in Devon and London.
He w ...
and
François-André Isambert
François-André Isambert (November 30, 1792 – April 13, 1857) was a French lawyer, historian, and politician. Isambert was founder and for an extended period contributor of the ''Gazette des Tribunaux'' and actively participated in Louis F ...
led Wiffen to seek out the Barcelona publisher Antonio Bergnes de las Casas (1801–1879). Bergnes had first been visited in 1833 by William Allen and Stephen Grellet. Contact was renewed through Santiago Usoz, brother to Luis. Bergnes became a publisher for British abolitionist material in Spain. Wiffen also passed material relating to Juan Francisco Manzano and his poetic slave narrative to Usoz, with the co-operation of
Richard Robert Madden
Richard Robert Madden (22 August 1798 – 5 February 1886) was an Irish doctor, writer, abolitionist and historian of the United Irishmen. Madden took an active role in trying to impose anti-slavery rules in Jamaica on behalf of the British gov ...
. In 1843 Wiffen made another research trip with Alexander, to the Netherlands and Denmark in particular.
The ''Reformistas antiguos españoles'' series
Wiffen knew Richard Thomas How of Aspley Guise, owner of a library collected by his father Richard How (1727–1801) who had edited
Rachel Russell, Lady Russell
Rachel, Lady Russell ( Wriothesley ; – 29 September 1723) was an English noblewoman, heiress, and author. Her second husband was William, Lord Russell, who was implicated in the Rye House Plot and later executed. A collection of the many ...
's ''Letters''. How hinted at an old work, by Juan de Valdés, which represented essentially the Quaker principles of
George Fox
George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...
. It was in the summer of 1841, during a visit of Usoz to Mount Pleasant, that they decided to publish works of the early Spanish reformers. An attraction of the project was the validation these writings gave to the inner light doctrine.
As his travels allowed, Wiffen began book-hunting.
John Martin John Martin may refer to:
Business
*John Martin (businessman) (1820–1905), American lumberman and flour miller
*John Charles Martin (fl. 1913–1931), American newspaper publisher
*John Martin (publisher) (born 1930), American founder of Black ...
the bibliographer, who settled at
Froxfield, Bedfordshire
Froxfield is a small hamlet in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough ...
, described Wiffen as a friend and neighbour as well as a specialist collector of books. Besides buying rare works he copied others, or obtained transcripts.
The collection ''Obras Antiguas de los Españoles Reformados'' appeared 1847–65 (20 vols.), privately printed under his supervision. He himself edited vol. ii., the ''Epistola Consolatoria'' (1848) by Juan Pérez de Pineda, with a notice of the author in English (reprinted with the English translation, 1871 by John T. Betts) and Spanish; and vol. xv., the ''Alfabeto Cristiano'' (1861) by Juan de Valdés, in Italian, with modern versions in Spanish and English. The remaining volumes were edited by Usoz. A reprinted edition was produced in Barcelona in 1981. Betts was a friend of Wiffen and Usoz.
Death
Wiffen died, unmarried, at Mount Pleasant on 18 March 1867, and was buried in the Friends' graveyard at Woburn Sands on 24 March. He always wore Quaker garb, and was strict in observances.
Other works
Wiffen wrote also the ''Life and Writings of Juan de Valdés'' (1865) which accompanies the English translations of works of Valdés by John T. Betts; and a ''Biographical Sketch'' (1869) of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, to accompany the English version of his ''Confession of a Sinner'', also by Betts. Eduard Böhmer printed two volumes (1874 and 1883) called ''Bibliotheca Wiffeniana'', containing lives and writings of Spanish reformers from 1520, based on Wiffen's work. He further published a number of Spanish tracts. His interest in Francisco de Enzinas led to contact with
Abraham Kuyper
Abraham Kuyper (; ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upo ...
who was studying
John a Lasco
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
; it is presumed to have happened through
Frederik Muller
Frederik Muller or Frits Muller (22 July 1817 – 4 January 1881) was a Dutch bibliographer, book seller, and print collector. He married Gerarda Jacoba Yntema. Their son ''Samuel Muller Fz.'' became known as municipal and state archivist in Utre ...
.
In early life, and again later, Wiffen wrote verse. His ''Warder of the Pyrenees'' appeared in
William Finden
William Finden (178720 September 1852) was an English engraver.
Life
He served his apprenticeship to James Mitan, but appears to have owed far more to the influence of James Heath, whose works he privately and earnestly studied. His first empl ...
's ''Tableaux of National Character'' (1845), edited by his sister, Priscilla Maden Wiffen (Zillah), who had married
Alaric Alexander Watts
Alaric Alexander Watts (16 March 1797 – 5 April 1864) was a British poet and journalist, born in London. His life was dedicated to newspaper creation and editing, and he was seen as a conservative writer. It led him to bankruptcy, when a p ...
. In '' The Liberty Bell'' for 1848, he published ''Placido, the Cuban Poet'', on
Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés
In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...
, known as Plácido, who was executed in 1844.
''Warder of the Pyrenees'' was reprinted in the selection of his poems, mostly then unpublished, in ''The Brothers Wiffen'' (1880), edited by Samuel Rowles Pattison. Richard Thomas How is portrayed in Wiffen's poem ''The Quaker Squire''. It formed part of an unpublished manuscript memorial, from 1840.
Wiffen's papers went to Wadham College, Oxford.