orts were ordered to be printed, and also
three thousand of Falconbridge's Account of the Slave-trade, the manuscript
of which was now finished. At this time, Mr. Newton, rector of St. Mary
Woolnoth in London, who had been in his youth to the coast of Africa, but
who had now become a serious and useful divine, felt it his duty to write
his Thoughts on the African Slave-trade. The commitee, having obtained
permission, printed three thousand copies of these also.
During these sittings, the chairman was requested to have frequent
communication with Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, as he had expressed his
desire of becoming useful to the institution.
A circular letter also, with the report before mentioned, was ordered to be
sent to the mayors of several corporate towns.
A case also occurred, which it may not be improper to notice. The treasurer
reported that he had been informed by the chairman, that the captain of the
Albion merchant ship, trading to the Bay of Honduras, had picked up at sea
from a Spanish ship, which had been wrecked, two black men, one named Henry
Martin Burrowes, a free native of Antigua, who had served in the royal
navy, and the other named Antonio Berrat, a Spanish Negro; that the said
captain detained these men on board his ship, then lying in the river
Thames, against their will; and that he would not give them up. Upon this
report, it was resolved that the cause of these unfortunate captives should
be espoused by the commitee. Mr. Sharp accordingly caused a writ of
habeas-corpus to be served upon them; soon after which he had the
satisfaction of reporting, that they had been delivered from the place of
their confinement.
During these sittings the following letters were read also:
One from Richard How, of Apsley, offering his services to the commitee.
Another from the reverend Christopher Wyvill, of Burton Hall in Yorkshire,
to the same effect.
Another from Archdeacon Plymley, (now Corbett,) in which he expressed the
deep interest he took in this cause of humanity and freedom, and the desire
he had of making himself useful as far as he could towards the support of
it; and he wished to know, as the clergy of the diocese of Litchfield and
Coventry were anxious to espouse it also, whether a petition to parliament
from them, as a part of the established church, would not be desirable at
the present season.
Another from Archdeacon Paley, containing his sentiments on a plan for the
abolitio
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