Thomas Babington

  General Notes:

The Babington family held the manor for almost 300 years until the death in 1837 of Thomas Babington. Married to Jean Macaulay, the daughter of a Scottish Presbyterian minister, Thomas Babington was MP for Leicester from 1800-1818, and a leading Anglican evangelical. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge alongside William Wilberforce, the two worked closely together on social improvement and famously on the Bills to abolish the slave trade.

Wilberforce and Babington spent much time at the Rothley retreat working on the text of the Bills, and on the analysis of the Select Committee's enquiries into the trade. Babington was instrumental in rescuing his wife's young brother, Zachary Macaulay, from the mental trauma of working as an overseer on a Jamaican slave plantation, when Zachary came to recuperate at Rothley Temple. Zachary was restored and, with a new Christian faith, went on to a lifetime devoted to the anti-slavery cause, and to have a posthumous bust in his honour placed in Westminster Abbey. Zachary returned often to Rothley, and on one long visit in 1800 his wife Selina (nee Mills) gave birth to poet, historian and Whig politician Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay.

Obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine March 1828:

THOMAS BABINGTON, ESQ. Nov. 21. Aged 79, Thomas Babington, Esq. of Rothley Temple, co. Leic. The representative of one of the oldest families in Leicestershire, being eighth in descent from Humphrey Babington, esq. of Temple Rothley (fifth son of Thomas Babington, esq. of Dethick. co. Derby), who died in 1614, this highly respectable gentleman was born Dec. 18, 1758, the eldest son of Thomas Babington, esq. High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1730, by Lydia, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Cardale, Vicar of Hinckley. He succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father, in 1776; and served the office of High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1780. In 1800 he was elected Member of Parliament for the town of Leicester in the room of Lord Rancliffe deceased; he was chosen for the four following Parliaments and sat until the dissolution in 1818. On most of the great questions of state policy, Mr. Babington supported Mr. Pitt; but he attached himself more particularly to the party of Mr. Wilberforce, whose effort for the abolition of the Slave Trade he warmly seconded. He also came prominently forward in opposition to lotteries.

It is but justice to say of Mr. Babington, that he possessed all that integrity and goodness of heart for which his ancestors were conspicuous, with an understanding highly cultivated. His benevolence was at all times exerted for the good of his tenants. In 1795 when bread was enormously dear, he established at Rothley a friendly societyto purchase corn and dispose of it to the poor at a low price. A still more interesting plan was adopted by Mr Babington in 1799, for supplying industrious labourers and mechanics with small parcels of land; which was communicated in detail by Mr Babington in a letter to the Board of Agriculture; but, we believe, was never published.

Mr Babbington married in 1787, Jean, daughter of the Rev. John Macauley*, minister of the church and parish of Cardross co. Dumbarton; and had issue I. Thomas Gisborne Babington, esq. born in 1788, who succeeds to the family estates : he married in 1814, the Hon. Augusta-Julia Noel, sister to Lord Barham, and was left a widower in 1833, with several children; 2. Lydia, married in 1809 to the Rev. Joseph Rose, of Carshalton, son of the Rev. _ Rose, by Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Foster Barham, esq.; 3. the Rev. John, who married in 1818 Maria-Frances, daughter of the Rev. J. S. Pratt, Prebendary of Peterborough; 4. Matthew; 5. George Gisborne; 6. Jean; 7. Mary; 8. William Henry; 9. Margaret-Anne; and 10. Charles-Roos.

*Mrs. Babington's brother is Zachary Macaulay, esq. well-known from his connexion
with Sierra Leone, and father of the present Thomas Babington Macaulay, one of the Supreme Council of India. Another brother of Mrs. Babington, the Rev. Aulay Macaulay, was. Vicar of Rothley from the gift of Mr. Babington: a memoir of him will be found in the Gentleman's Mag. for June 1816, p.535. ²⁶

  Noted events in his life were:

• Address: Rothley Hall, Rothley, Leicestershire.

Thomas married Jean Macaulay.