Henry Smithers (Bapt. 7 August 1762 - 8 April 1828, Edge Hill, Lancashire) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...

based in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was an active radical and abolitionist. He wrote poetry and a number of books on commerce and economics. Henry was the son of Joseph Smithers and Martha (née Keene). With Henry Keene he ran a coal merchants business in

Clink Street Clink Street is a street in Bankside, London, UK, between Southwark Cathedral and the Globe Theatre. Narrow, dark and cobbled, it is best known as the historic location of the notorious Clink Prison, giving rise to the slang phrase 'in the cl ...

. He was proposed for membership of the Society for Constitutional Information by Joseph Towers. He was also active in the

Revolution Society The London Revolution Society was formed 1788, ostensibly to commemorate the centennial of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the landing of William III, and was one of several radical societies in Britain in the 1790s. Other similar Revolution So ...

, serving as both steward (1788) and secretary (1789). He was a founding member of the

Society of Ship-Owners of Great Britain The Society of Ship-Owners of Great Britain (SOGB) was an organisation established by British ship-owners in 1802 to defend their interests by opposing breaches of the Navigation Acts. The decision to form the organisation was reached at a meeting h ...

in 1802. He went into business with his son, John Hampden Smithers, but they were declared bankrupt in 1815. Smithers was an abolitionist and expressed these sentiments in his account of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, providing statistics on the increase in the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

during the eighteenth century.

Works

* (1819) ''Observations Made During a Residence in Brussels'' Brussels: Self published * (1825) ''Liverpool, its commerce, statistics, and institutions; with a history of the cotton trade'', Liverpool: Thomas Kaye

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smithers, Henry 1762 births 1828 deaths British abolitionists Ship owners