In the early 1780s a group of Christians of wealth and influence began to meet for Bible study and prayer in the London suburb of Clapham. Eventually they included a number of extraordinarily gifted individuals such as the great parliamentarian William Wilberforce; Henry Thornton, the banker; Charles Grant, a director of the East India Company; James Steven, a leading barrister; Lord Teignmouth, a governor-general of India; Zachary Macaulay, the first governor of Sierra Leone and the editor of the Christian Observer; and certain prominent non-residents such as Hannah More, the writer and pioneer educator, and Charles Simeon, the outstanding Anglican evangelical of his day.
The accomplishments of this body in proportion to their limited numbers is nothing short of astounding. They include anti-slavery laws, the founding of the colony of Sierra Leone for exslaves, the founding of schools and the betterment of education, the founding of the Religious Tract Society, the development of churches and missions in India, and the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society.