A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2002.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
T D Atkinson, Ethel M Hampson, E T Long, C A F Meekings, Edward Miller, H B Wells, G M G Woodgate, 'Wisbech: Worthies', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds, ed. R B Pugh( London, 2002), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp269-270 [accessed 22 December 2024].
T D Atkinson, Ethel M Hampson, E T Long, C A F Meekings, Edward Miller, H B Wells, G M G Woodgate, 'Wisbech: Worthies', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds. Edited by R B Pugh( London, 2002), British History Online, accessed December 22, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp269-270.
T D Atkinson, Ethel M Hampson, E T Long, C A F Meekings, Edward Miller, H B Wells, G M G Woodgate. "Wisbech: Worthies". A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds. Ed. R B Pugh(London, 2002), , British History Online. Web. 22 December 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp269-270.
WORTHIES
The most famous native of Wisbech is Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), the slavery abolitionist. (fn. 1) Others include Richard Huloet (fl. 1552), lexicographer, (fn. 2) John Crane (1572-1652), apothecary, a great benefactor to the town; William Godwin the elder (1756-1836), author of Political Justice, and father of Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley's wife; James Pegge (fl. 1832-46), the first Baptist missionary to India; and Octavia Hill (1838-1912), the housing reformer and philanthropist. (fn. 3) Other notable men and women connected with the town are Jane Stuart (d. 1745), said to have been a natural daughter of James II, who sought refuge at Wisbech after her father's downfall, earned a living as a worsted spinner and became a Quaker; (fn. 4) Henry Banyer (fl. 1739), medical writer, who practised in the town; and Richard Wright (1764-1836), Unitarian missionary, minister of the Particular Baptists from about 1790 to 1810. The vicars of Wisbech include John Warkworth (d. 1500), Master of Peterhouse and reputed author of a chronicle of the reign of Edward IV, John Saul Howson (1816-85), Dean of Chester, and John Scott, brother of Sir Gilbert Scott the architect.