Wilberforce House

Image gallery

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Wilberforce Portrait This portrait of William Wilberforce is signed and dated 1794 by Karl Anton Hickel. An additional portrait, painted at a later date by the same artist, is also in the Museum's collection. Wilberforce is shown here wearing a blue coat and striped waistcoat, with grey powdered hair. Hickel was a painter of portraits and genre scenes. He worked with his brother, Joseph, at the Academy in Vienna. He visited the Tyrol and Switzerland and stayed in France where he painted the portrait of Marie-Antoinette. During the French Revolution he travelled to England where he painted, amongst numerous pieces, a portrait of William Pitt, the Prime Minister and Wilberforce's close friend. Between 1792 and 1796 Hickel exhibited 15 works at the Royal Academy, London.	View image
William Wilberforce Court Dress This court dress frock coat and waistcoat was worn by William Wilberforce in London between around 1780 and 1830. The corded velvet is now very much faded to a green shade but was originally mauve. William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833) became interested in politics and was elected MP for Hull in 1780. Four years later he became MP for Yorkshire, a very influential position. In 1787, Wilberforce decided to raise the subject of the abolition of the slave trade in the House of Commons. In 1807 the Act to abolish the Slave trade was finally passed. Wilberforce died on July 29th, 1833, believing the abolition of slavery to be within reach.	View image
William Wilberforce by John Rising (b. 1753, d. London 1817) Oil on canvas, 1790. This portrait of William Wilberforce depicts him at the age of 29, when he was taking up the cause for the abolition of the Slave Trade in Parliament. The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1790, listed as a 'Portrait of a Gentleman (Mr. Wilberforce)'. In this period John Rising was based at Park Street, Grosvenor Square, London. Rising was a painter of portraits and of genre scenes, exhibiting his works at the Royal Academy in London between 1785 and 1814. This painting was a bequest to the Museum from a descendant of William Wilberforce. We have a similar portrait of Wilberforce, painted by an unknown artist, after the Rising portrait, on display in the Front Georgian room. Other versions exist in private and public collections.	View image
Slave Auction Poster This is a Slave Auction Poster from 1829. Slaves were advertised and sold, being regarded as commodities rather than human beings. Slaves would be inspected before the auction and prepared to look their best to fetch the best price. Men and women would often be separated and forced to go with their new owners to distant places being torn away from their friends and family. As Soloman Northup recounts in his autobiography of 1847 Twelve Years a Slave his experience at a slave auction “He would make us hold up our heads, walk briskly back and forth, while customers would feel of our hands and arms and bodies, turn us about, ask us what we could do, make us open our mouths and show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which he is about to barter for or purchase.”	View image
A Slave In Chains Oil on canvas. This portrait was painted around 1800 by an unknown artist. This is a rare portrait of a slave, in chains, painted during the period when figures like Wilberforce were campaigning for the abolition of the Slave Trade. It has been suggested previously that Wilberforce used this portrait to help the campaign. There is, however, no evidence to support this.	View image
The Brookes Slave Ship This is a wooden model of the Liverpool slave ship 'Brookes', used by William Wilberforce in the House of Commons around 1790, to illustrate the method in which Slaves were transported in the Middle Passage. On one voyage the vessel carried a total of 609 slaves (351 men, 127 women, 90 boys and 41 girls). It was normal for some 20% of the prisoners to die during the voyage.	View image
Barnaby & Rust Bracket Clock This clock was made by Barnaby & Rust of Hull, who were watchmakers and silversmiths. It has a highly decorative case with fretwork side panels, and an ornate dial. It was presented to Colonel C H Milburn by officers who served under his command from January 1907 to January 1911.	View image
Slaves on the West Coast of Africa by Francois-Auguste Biard. Oil on Canvas. The picture is set at Freetown Bay, Sierra Leone and portrays a West African Slave Market, with slaves being inspected and branded before being taken on ships across the Atlantic Ocean to work on plantations of the Caribbean and North America. The painting was given to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, to commemorate the abolition of slavery in 1833.	View image
Punch and Judy Puppets These glove puppets are part of a collection made and used by Joseph Bursell in “Punch and Judy” shows in Hull and the East Riding from the 1920s to the 1960s. Although Punch and Judy shows are often associated with children’s seaside entertainment, it was originally intended for adults, and developed from an Italian character known as Punchinello. Other characters in the Bursell Puppet Theatre collection include the Constable, the Doctor, Pretty Polly and the Crocodile.	View image
Tankard The tankard was made by Abraham Barachin a Hull silversmith, in the early 18th Century (around 1706). The tankard has three marks, the Hull crest of the three crowns, AB (the maker’s mark) and a rose. The tankard has a drum-shaped barrel, featuring ringed bands around the rim and base. It has a D section handle and ornamental thumb-piece. The piece was engraved on the handle, W H M, and on the barrel, W H Maude. The Tankard was purchased with grant aid assistance from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund.	View image
Front entrance of Wilberforce House Museum The House was built around 1660 by Hugh Lister. Subsequently the Thornton, then the Wilberforce families resided here. William Wilberforce was born here on the 24th August 1759, and became famous for his parliamentary role in the anti-slavery campaign to abolish slavery. Wilberforce House has been a museum since opening in 1906 and will celebrate its 100th Birthday in 2006.	View image
Tea Urn This silver Tea Urn was made by Frans Butty and Nicholas Dounce of London around 1760. The tea urn is not part of the Hull Silver collection but has local provenance, through a connection to the Wilberforce family. The urn bears the arms of the Maulever of Arncliffe in the North Riding (three greyhounds) and the Wilberforce family crest, the eagle. The two families were inter-married in 1752	View image