The letters focus on the anti-slavery campaigner’s attempts to raise money for what is now St Paul’s Church reports Sophie Mitchell

A woman wearing white gloves holding an old letter — University of Chester alumni assistant, Amy Hultum, showing William Wilberforce’s signature at the end of one of his letters to Henry Raikes – (Credit – University of Chester)

Letters written by abolitionist campaigner William Wilberforce outlining his efforts to build a church in Mill Hill have been uncovered in a university archive.

The opponent of slavery became focused on building St Paul’s chapel near his Highwood Hill home in Mill Hill after ill health led him to retire from politics.

A project organising donations from alumni of the University of Chester, led by the alumni assistant, Amy Hultum, has brought to light artefacts that have been in storage for decades – and staff found two letters written by Wilberforce in 1830 in the depths of the archives.

Amy Hultum said about the discovery: “We did not expect to come across anything like these letters but we were very excited to find them in a box amongst our University collections.”

Wilberforce’s letters were to his friend Reverend Henry Raikes, and discussed Wilberforce’s quest to build a chapel near the Highwood Hill estate at his own expense. This would eventually become St Paul’s Church on the Ridgeway in Mill Hill.

Following his retirement from politics, Wilberforce had relocated to Highwood Hill in 1826 for a more tranquil life. A devoted supporter of the evangelical wing of the Church of England, he wrote to Raikes in Chester to involve him in his vision of the Mill Hill chapel.

His project would eventually come to fruition in 1833, but not before Wilberforce was forced to rent out Highwood House as a consequence of his son’s financial ruin. He left Middlesex and lived his final years between his children’s homes in Kent and the Isle of Wight.

Wilberforce’s many friends offered him financial assistance after taking on his son’s losses, but he refused all except gifts for his new chapel. The east window’s painted glass panel depicting the dead Christ and the three Marys was donated to Wilberforce as a gift.

Dr Hannah Ewence, head of humanities, cultures and environment at the University of Chester, said of Wilberforce’s life at the time of writing: “These two letters, between William Wilberforce and his friend and fellow Evangelist Henry Raikes, were written towards the end of Wilberforce’s life.

“His efforts to persuade Raikes that he should take a living as curate in Mill Hill, because he knew him to be ‘a promoter of peace and good will’, reveals that Wilberforce’s reputation for showing great care for friend and stranger alike had not diminished, even in his final years.”

The letters ended up in the Chester archive because Henry Raikes, then Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester, would in 1839 become one of six founders of the Chester Diocesan Training College, which became the University of Chester.

Wilberforce died on 29th July 1833, just the week before the Mill Hill chapel he had been dreaming of was consecrated on 8th August.

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