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Biography[edit source | edit]Forster was born in 1784. He initially trained as a land agent with his mother's brother in Sheffield, but he then started to tour England and Scotland as a minister. He visited the Hebride in 1812 and Ireland in 1813–14.[4]
When visiting Newgate prison with Stephen Grellet, Forster was amazed at its state. He contacted Elizabeth Fry and she gathered together a group of women to help with improving prison conditions. Forster thereby alerted Elizabeth Fry to what was to be her life's work.[2]
In 1816, Forster married Anna Buxton and they moved to Dorset.
Forster used his family's influence. When his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, entered parliament in 1818, he wrote to him to encourage him to take up the cause of slavery. He noted that the slavery trade had been abolished (in 1807 in the British Empire[6]) but there was still the issue of those who were already slaves.[7] Following the Reform Act, William Wilberforce was able to get legislation through parliament. In 1838 legislation replaced slavery with apprenticeship. As a result, in August 1838 800,000 people in the British Empire became free.[6]
A picture was commissioned showing William Forster as a member of the new British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society which was formed in 1839. The painting captured this important international convention in June 1840. The small extract shown here includes only Samuel Gurney—a banker and fellow Quaker—Forster, and William Allen.[1] Also in this painting are William's brothers, Robert and Josiah Forster. This new society's aim was "The universal extinction of slavery and the slave trade and the protection of the rights and interests of the enfranchised population in the British possessions and of all persons captured as slaves."