Thomas Clarkson - Later Life

Later Life

Throughout his life Clarkson was a frequent guest of Mr Joseph Hardcastle (the first treasurer of the London Missionary Society) at Hatcham House in Deptford. Then a rural Surrey village, it is now part of inner London. Here Clarkson wrote much of his History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1808). Here too, in the early 1790s he had met his wife, a niece of Mrs Hardcastle.

Thomas was not the only notable member of his family. His remarkable younger brother, John Clarkson at age 28, took a major part in organising and coordinating the relocation of approximately 1200 United States ex-slaves from Nova Scotia, Canada to the new colony of Sierra Leone. There he became the first Governor and helped the settlers survive terrible conditions in the first year. John Clarkson helped the settlers move to independence, more than the Sierra Leone commercial company wanted, and they forced him to resign. John Clarkson died in 1828 in Woodbridge, Suffolk and was buried in St Mary's churchyard.

Thomas Clarkson died on 26 September 1846 in Playford, Suffolk, and was buried in the village on 2 October at St Mary’s Church. An obelisk to his memory was erected in the churchyard in 1857.