Radical Roots  Gilbert Wakefield

Gilbert Wakefield – English minister, writer and supporter of the French Revolution, jailed for his radical writings.

Born in Nottingham in 1756, the son of an Anglican clergyman, Gilbert too trained for the ministry, but left the Church of England and became a Unitarian minister, earning his living by teaching at Warrington Academy.

A support of democracy, liberty and revolution, Wakefiled spent two years in Dorchester gaol for a radical pamphlet he had written. Later, he published ‘A Reply to Some Parts of the Bishop Llandaff’s Address to the People of Great Britain’ – a Unitarian work advocating for the poor and condemning the rich. For this, his published was imprisoned for six months. In 1791, Wakefield published his own translation of The New Testament.

Released from prison in May 1801, Wakefield had contracted typhus, from which he died on 9 Sept 1801 in Hackney, London, aged just 44. His funeral procession went through the streets of London to the church in Richmond where he was buried.