Robert Wedderburn (1762 – 1835/1836?) was a British-Jamaican radical and abolitionist of multiracial descent active in
early 19th-century London. Wedderburn was born in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
, an illegitimate son of an enslaved
Black woman, Rosanna, and Scottish
sugar planter James Wedderburn. During his life, Robert Wedderburn sought to reconcile his political priorities and religious views.
Influenced by
millenarian
Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious organization, religious, social, or political party, political group or Social movement, movement in a coming fundamental Social transformation, transformation of society, after which ...
ideas, he moved from
Methodism
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
and towards
Unitarian leanings, before rejecting Christianity and embracing a
deist
Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...
outlook. An early
freethinker
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an unorthodox attitude or belief.
A freethinker holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other meth ...
, the combination of his deist views, associations with well-known radicals and atheists, and utopian political ideals, led to his arrest for breach of
blasphemy law
A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, which is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of Reverence (attitude), reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Re ...
s. In 1824 he published ''The Horrors of Slavery'', a tract which influenced the
Abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
movement.
Biography
Early life
Robert Wedderburn was born in
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
in around 1762. His mother Rosanna was a black woman of dark brown complexion, and was enslaved in his white Scottish father's house as a house worker. His father was
James Wedderburn, a slave-owner and plantation owner who was born in Scotland, and was the son of
Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness
Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, (1704–1746) was a Perthshire gentleman who joined the 1745 rebellion of Charles Edward Stuart. He was captured at the Battle of Culloden, taken to London, and convicted of treason. He was hanged, ...
, who was executed for treason following the
Jacobite rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...
. Following this catastrophe, the young James and his brother
John Wedderburn of Ballendean
Sir John Wedderburn of Ballindean, 6th Baronet of Blackness (1729–1803) was a Scottish landowner who made a fortune in Sugar plantations in the Caribbean, slave sugar in the West Indies. Born into a family of impoverished Perthshire gentry, hi ...
fled Scotland for the West Indies. James Wedderburn settled in
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
, making a living as a medical doctor before making his fortune as a
sugar plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacc ...
owner. While in Jamaica he fathered children with several enslaved women.
[Robert Wedderburn, ''The Horrors of Slavery'', 1824.][McCalman (1986), 107.]
While Rosanna was five months pregnant with his third child, having already given birth to two children prior to that, he sold her to her previous enslaver.
James Wedderburn stipulated, however, that Rosanna's child when born should be legally free, and he officially registered both Robert and an elder brother James as free men.
[Malcolm Chase, "Wedderburn, Robert (1762–1835/6?)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004]
online edn
May 2008, accessed 17 November 2012. In later years, James Wedderburn returned to live in Britain, where his legitimate son and heir
Andrew Colvile
Andrew Colvile (born Andrew Wedderburn; 6 November 1779 – 3 February 1856) was a Scottish businessman, notable as the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, a huge organisation set up for the North American fur trade but also instrumenta ...
defended his father when these details were made public in the British press, denied the paternity and further claimed Rosanna was both promiscuous and unable to control her temper.
Although born free, Wedderburn was raised in a harsh environment, as his mother was often flogged due to her "violent and rebellious temper". She was eventually re-sold away from her son,
who was then raised by his maternal grandmother, a woman known as "Talkee Amy".
To escape the insecurity and abuse of the plantation, Wedderburn signed on with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
at the age of 16.
[McCalman (1986), 101.] On the ships, the quality of food and living conditions were abysmal, and it was during this time that Wedderburn became increasingly opposed to the
method of punishments used by the Royal Navy.
Arrival in Britain
Robert Wedderburn arrived in Britain aged 17 and settled down in
St. Giles,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, an ethnically diverse
district of the city which was inhabited by numerous
free people of colour,
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
,
Indian sailors and
Irish immigrants
The Irish diaspora () refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland.
The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner, Roy; Meeder, Sven (2017). The Irish ...
. During this period, Wedderburn found employment as a tailor, becoming trained in the profession; though he was also reported to have been involved in occasional incidents of
petty theft
Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal short ...
.
[Malcolm Chase, "Wedderburn, Robert (1762–1835/6?)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004]
online edn
May 2008, accessed 17 November 2012.
Through means that remain unclear (it is possible that he had been an apprentice in Jamaica or had learned while in the Navy), Wedderburn eventually became a journeyman tailor. As he referred to himself as a "flint" tailor, this suggests he was registered in the book of trades and shared values typical of other artisans - including pride in his craft and a belief in economic independence.
[McCalman (1986) 104.] Unfortunately, the instability of his career made him increasingly susceptible to the effects of a trade recession, inflation and food shortages, and he was soon reduced to part-time mending work on the outskirts of town.
By now married and desperate for money during one of his wife's pregnancies, Wedderburn visited his father's family at
Inveresk
Inveresk (Gaelic: ''Inbhir Easg'') is a village in East Lothian, Scotland situated to the south of Musselburgh. It has been designated a conservation area since 1969. It is situated on slightly elevated ground on the north bank of a loop ...
near
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. He recalled that his father did not deny him to be his son "but called me a ''lazy fellow'', and said he would do nothing for me. From his cook I had one draught of
small beer
Small beer (also known as small ale or table beer) is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval ...
, and his footman gave me a cracked
sixpence". Wedderburn thereafter dabbled in petty theft and keeping a
bawdy house. In 1824, ''
Bell's Life in London
''Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle'' was a British weekly sporting paper published as a pink broadsheet between 1822 and 1886.
History
''Bell's Life'' was founded by Robert Bell, a London printer-publisher. Bell sold it to William In ...
'' published a letter from Robert Wedderburn addressed to
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780 ...
giving an account of his origins and his father's failure to provide for him. It also published his alleged half-brother,
Andrew Colvile
Andrew Colvile (born Andrew Wedderburn; 6 November 1779 – 3 February 1856) was a Scottish businessman, notable as the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, a huge organisation set up for the North American fur trade but also instrumenta ...
's, reply citing his father's denial of paternity and threatening to sue the paper if it published any further slanders.
Radicalism and activity

In 1786, Wedderburn stopped to listen to a
Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
preacher he heard in
Seven Dials. Influenced by a mixture of
Arminian
Arminianism is a movement of Protestantism initiated in the early 17th century, based on the Christian theology, theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters known as Remo ...
,
millenarian
Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious organization, religious, social, or political party, political group or Social movement, movement in a coming fundamental Social transformation, transformation of society, after which ...
,
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
, and
Unitarian ideas, he converted to be a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
, and soon published a small theological tract called ''Truth Self Supported: or, a Refutation of Certain Doctrinal Errors Generally Adopted in the Christian Church''. Although this work contained no explicit mention of slavery, it does suggest Wedderburn's future path in subversive and radical political action.
Wedderburn was sufficiently well known to be the subject of at least one satirical print by the caricaturist
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank or Cruickshank ( ; 27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern William Hogarth, Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dicken ...
, who in 1817 published "''A Peep into The City of London Tavern''" in which Wedderburn is caricatured alongside the social reformer
Robert Owen
Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement, co-operative movement. He strove to ...
.
[Annie Dickinson, rylandscollections.com](_blank)
Retrieved 21 September 2021 The central figure in Cruikshank's 1819 print ''The New Union Club'' may also be a caricature of Wedderburn.
Politically influenced by
Thomas Spence
Thomas Spence ( 17508 September 1814) was an English RadicalProperty in Land Every One's Rightin 1775. It was re-issued as ''The Real Rights of Man'' in later editions. It was also reissued by, amongst others, Henry Hyndman under the title o ...
, Wedderburn was an impassioned speaker and became de facto leader of the Spencean Society in 1817 after the nominal leaders were arrested on suspicion of high treason.
Wedderburn published fiery periodicals advocating republican revolution, using violence if necessary, to bring about redistribution of property in Britain and the West Indies. In 1824, he published an anti-slavery book entitled ''The Horrors of Slavery'', printed by
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Life
Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Colesh ...
and possibly coauthored by
George Cannon.
To promote his religious message, he opened his own
Unitarian chapel in Hopkins Street in
Soho
SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. After, he began to question Christian tenets. He was later associated with the
freethought movement, including popular
deists
Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term ''deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation o ...
and atheists such as
Richard Carlile
Richard Carlile (8 December 1790 – 10 February 1843) was an English radical publisher and writer. He was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom.
Early life and career ...
. He also campaigned for freedom of speech.
Prison

Robert Wedderburn served several prison terms. According to
Peter Linebaugh
Peter Linebaugh is an American Marxist historian who specializes in British history, Irish history, labor history, and the history of the colonial Atlantic. He is a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.
Early life
Linebaugh was born in 194 ...
(2000) it is recorded that Wedderburn "did time in
Cold Bath Fields, Dorchester, and
Giltspur Street Compter
The Giltspur Street Compter was a compter or small prison, designed by English architect and surveyor George Dance the Younger, mainly used to hold debtors. It was in Giltspur Street, Smithfield, close to Newgate, in the City of London, betw ...
prisons for theft, blasphemy, and keeping a bawdy house." While imprisoned, alongside his associate Richard Carlile, Wedderburn wrote a letter to
Francis Place
Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London."
Background and early life
He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
.
In 1831, at the age of 68, he was arrested and sent to
Giltspur Street
Giltspur Street is a street in Smithfield in the City of London, England, running north–south from the junction of Newgate Street, Holborn Viaduct and Old Bailey, up to West Smithfield, and it is bounded to the east by St Bartholomew's ...
Prison and sentenced to two years in jail, having been convicted of keeping a brothel. On his release he appears to have gone to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where a newspaper records his involvement in a fraud case and refers to him as "a tailor and breeches maker, field preacher, anti-bank deposite politician, romance writer, circulating librarian, and ambulating dealer in drugs, deism, and demoralization in general".
He returned to London shortly after.
His last mention in the historical record was in March 1834 when a Home Office informer listed him as present among the congregation at the
Theobald's Road
Theobalds Road is a road in the Holborn district of London. It is named after Theobalds Palace because King James I used this route when going between there and London, travelling with his court and baggage of some 200 carts. For this reaso ...
Institute.
Death and legacy
The exact year of his death is unknown, although it appears to have been before official registers of death began to be kept in 1837.
He may be the "Robert Wedderborn" who died aged 72 in
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common la ...
and was buried in a non-conformist ceremony on 4 January 1835.
Some have located Wedderburn's deism, radicalism, and secularism within a history of British
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
. The Humanist Heritage website recalls that "Wedderburn and others like him fostered a humanist tradition of rationalism, compassion, and tolerance, suffering the effects of blasphemy laws the like of which humanists continue to fight today."
Descendants
The British Labour politician
Bill Wedderburn, Baron Wedderburn of Charlton, was a direct descendant of Robert Wedderburn.
[Bill McCarthy]
"Lord Wedderburn of Charlton obituary"
''The Guardian'', 12 March 2012.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
"Robert Wedderburn: race, religion and revolution"in ''
International Socialism
''International Socialism'' is a British-based quarterly journal established in 1960 and published in London by the Socialist Workers Party which discusses socialist theory. It is currently edited by Joseph Choonara who replaced Alex Callini ...
, 132, (2011)
Trailer - The Horrors of Slavery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedderburn, Robert
1762 births
1830s deaths
Year of death missing
Jamaican people of Scottish descent
British deists
English people of Jamaican descent
English people of Scottish descent
Jamaican non-fiction writers
Scottish political writers
Scottish Methodists
Jamaican activists
Writers from London
English Unitarians
Scottish Unitarians
Black British writers
Black British religious leaders
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...