William Dillwyn facts for kids
William Dillwyn (born 1743 in Philadelphia – died September 28, 1824) was an important person from America who later lived in Great Britain. He was a Quaker, which is a religious group known for promoting peace and equality. William Dillwyn was very active in the movement to end slavery, known as the abolitionist movement.
He worked to stop slavery in colonial America and then continued his efforts after moving to Great Britain in 1774. In 1787, he became one of the twelve founding members of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This group worked hard to end the slave trade.
William was the son of John Dillwyn and Susanna Painter. He went to the Friends' English School of Philadelphia, where he was taught by Anthony Benezet, another famous abolitionist.
William's Family Life
William Dillwyn married Sarah Logan Smith on May 19, 1768, in Burlington County, New Jersey. They had a daughter named Susanna, who was born in New Jersey on March 31, 1769. Susanna later married Samuel Emlen in 1795.
William married again on November 27, 1777, to Sarah Weston in Tottenham, which was then in Middlesex. They had several children together:
- Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778–1855)
- John Crook Dillwyn (1780–1781)
- Judith Nickolls (Dillwyn) Bevan (1781–1868)
- Ann Dillwyn (1783), who married Richard Dykes Alexander
- Lydia (Dillwyn) Sims (1785–1830)
- George Dillwyn (1787)
- Sarah Musgrave Dillwyn (1790)
- Gulielma Dillwyn (1792)
Through his son Lewis Weston Dillwyn, William became the grandfather of some notable people. These included the famous photographer John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), the politician Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn (1814-1892), and the pioneering female photographer Mary Dillwyn (1816-1906).
His great-granddaughter, Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn, was a Welsh astronomer and a pioneer in scientific photography. Other great-granddaughters were the novelist Amy Dillwyn and the butterfly expert Mary De la Beche Nicholl.
How William is Remembered
A street in Ipswich, called Dillwyn Street, is named after him. William's son-in-law, Richard Dykes Alexander, owned the land where this street was built. He made sure that some of the new street names would honor important people who worked to end slavery.
