Rev. Stephen Isaacson

Clergyman, an anti-abolitionist with colonial experience in pre-Emancipation British Guiana, son of Robert Isaacson and husband of Anna Maria Miller Killekelly, the daughter of a Barbados merchant.

1. In the ODNB as 'writer', primarily as an anti-abolitionist, churchman and amateur archaeologist.

2. Ordained deacon and priest 1824; appointed stipendiary curate of Dorking 16/21835, stipend £150.

3. Adm. pens. (age 18) at CHRIST'S, Apr. 5, 1816. S. of Robert [auctioneer]. B. [Feb. 17, 1798], at Cowlinge, Suffolk. School, Norwich. Matric. Michs. 1816; Scholar, 1817; B.A. 1820. Ord. deacon (London) June 13, 1824; priest (Colonies) Oct. 18, 1824. While at Cambridge a frequent contributor of humorous verse to the Gentleman's Magazine and other periodicals. Originated the Brighton Magazine, 1822, which failed. R. of St Paul's, Demerara, West Indies, 1826-32. Returned to England, 1829 [in fact 1832 according to the ODNB] , and on Aug. 8, delivered a clever speech at Mansion House Chapel, Camberwell, in which he vindicated the position of the West Indian slave-owners. C. of St Margaret's, Lothbury, c. 1832-4. C. of Dorking, Surrey, 1834-7. C. of West Hackney, Middlesex, in 1841. Resided at Dymchurch, Kent, 1843-7, and Chaplain of Elham Union, Dymchurch, 1844-7. Resided subsequently at Hoddesdon, Herts. Edited Life of Bishop Andrewes by his relation Henry Isaacson, the chronologer, and translated Bishop Jewel's ‘Apologia.’ Author, miscellaneous works, poems, and religious services, etc. A zealous member of the British Archaeological Association; contributed valuable information about primaeval antiquities in Kent, and to the genealogy of the family of Stuteville, from which he descended. Married, Nov. 1826, in Guiana, Maria Miller, youngest dau. of Bryan Bernard Killekelly, of the Barbados. Died Apr. 7, 1849, in London. (Peile, II. 382; D.N.B.; G. Mag., 1849, II. 101-2.)

4. Contributor to Fraser's Magazine of pro-slavery articles and the key figure in shaping the Christian Remembrancer, a high-church journal, as staunchly pro-slavery.

5. The Commissioners of Compensation corresponded with Rev. Stephen Isaacson of Dorking in 1836 and 1837 to request the return of a compensation award 'in light of affidavit of Mr Reid'.

T71/897 Barbados claim no. 2432.

1. Gordon Goodwin, ‘Isaacson, Stephen (1798–1849)’, rev. Mari G. Ellis, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14481, accessed 07/08/2012].

2. CCEd [database online] Person ID 78265.

3. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900 [database online].

4. Michael Taylor, 'Conservative political economy and the problem of colonial slavery, 1823-33' (Unpub. PhD, University of Cambridge, 2015), pp. 49-50.

5. T71/1593 p. 115 20/02/1836 and p. 381 28/01/1837 re British Guiana no. 2651. T71/1610 letter from John G. Reed Demerary 02/12/1836: my power of attorney to receive compensation for a female domestic of my own has been returned to me with the following observation on the back'.: 'amended awrd to Rev SI upon affidavit that the said JGReed ought to have filed the claim as agent of Mr Isaacson and not as owner.' I must express my astonishment at this result, and trust that my representation of the falsehood of Mr Isaacson's affidavit as set forth will entitle me to receive this award which is most justly mine.'