Charles Buxton

For the English philanthropist and politician, see Charles Roden Buxton.

Charles Buxton (18 November 1823 – 10 August 1871) was an English brewer, philanthropist, writer and member of Parliament.

Buxton was born in Cobham, Surrey, the third son of Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet, a notable brewer, MP and social reformer, and followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a partner in the brewery of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, & Co in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, London, and then an MP. He served as Liberal MP for Newport, Isle of Wight (1857–1859), Maidstone (1859–1865) and East Surrey (1865–1871). His son Sydney Buxton was also an MP and governor of South Africa.

Personal life and architectural legacy

On 7 February 1850, he married Emily Mary Holland, the eldest daughter of physician Henry Holland (physician to Queen Victoria and later president of the Royal Institution).

Around 1850, he commissioned construction of a small detached, but ornate house, Foxholm (Grade II-listed architecturally) on Redhill Road, then in Wisley but now in Cobham, for the Chaplain to Queen Victoria.

In 1860 he had his own house built on the neighbouring estate in what is today between a golf course and the Site of Special Scientific Interest which is Ockham and Wisley Commons, Foxwarren Place (Grade II*-listed architecturally). The building is stark Neo-Gothic: polychrome brickwork, red with blue diapering, and terracotta dressings, renewed plain-tiled roofs with crow-stepped gables.

Anti-slavery parliamentary campaigners' memorial fountain

Following his father's death, Buxton commissioned architect Samuel Sanders Teulon to design the Buxton Memorial Fountain to commemorate his father's role, with others, in the abolition of slavery. The fountain was initially erected in Parliament Square but was later moved to its current position in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster. It carries the dedication:

Erected in 1865 by Charles Buxton MP in commemoration of the emancipation of slaves 1834 and in memory of his father, Sir T Fowell Buxton, and those associated with him: Wilberforce, Clarkson, Macaulay, Brougham, Dr Lushington and others.

Published works

He produced Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Baronet, with Selections from his Correspondence, first published in 1848. He later wrote a history, Slavery and Freedom in the British West Indies, published in 1860.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Buxton

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Nathaniel Massey Robert William Kennard	Member of Parliament for Newport 1857–1859 With: Charles Edward Mangles	Succeeded by Philip Lybbe Powys Robert William Kennard
Preceded by Alexander Beresford Hope Edward Scott	Member of Parliament for Maidstone 1859–1865 With: William Lee	Succeeded by William Lee James Whatman
Preceded by Peter John Locke King Thomas Alcock	Member of Parliament for East Surrey 1865–1871 With: Peter John Locke King	Succeeded by Peter John Locke King James Watney