Piet Naudé | Michael Welker | John Witte, Jr. (Eds.): The Impact of Political Economy (Leseprobe)

Philanthropic Formation 71
The confluence of these two intensely formative cultures created awave of
institutional and cultural innovation beginning in the 1750s, especially in the
emerging field of philanthropy. New organizational models combined the entrepreneurial
practices and accountability patterns endemic in mercantile networks,
with the missional focus and institution-building tendencies of religious
charities. Unlike the majority of religious charities in London during the mideighteenthcentury,
whose governors tended only to attend annual meetings, the
directors of these new philanthropic associations were active on voluntary committees.
Immersed in collective deliberation and action for philanthropic purposes,
they revealed in their diaries, correspondence, and minutes intense intellectual
collaboration and experimentation in organizational practices. Participation
or connection tothese networks fostered areinforcing formative culture for the
voluntary directors and those close to them. 11
Henry Thornton’s life exemplified the formative dynamics of this context.
His father, John Thornton, was aprominent member of the Russia Company who
had been convertedtoevangelicalism around 1754, shortly after marrying Lucy
Watson, the daughter of anotherprominent merchant family. Born in 1760, Henry
Thornton therefore grew up immersed in Russia Company networks. Heinitially
entered the countinghouse of his cousin Godfrey Thornton in 1778, before
joining his father’s firm in 1780. Henry’s education and the guidance of his parents
led him and his two older brothers through the patterns of preparation for
merchant life.
As an evangelical household, the family made rhythms of prayer, study of
the Bible, and reading of awide range of moral and religious literature integral to
daily life, alongside multiple church services aweek. Henry’s parents’ involvement
in evangelical and philanthropic circles was also deeply shaping. The
Thorntonhousehold frequentlyhosted visitors engaged in philanthropy, and the
children therefore became acquainted with and sometimes engaged in longerterm
correspondence with figures such as the North American indigenous missionary
Samson Occom, the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley, and numerous evangelical
ministers and entrepreneurs. 12 The younger Thorntons were encouraged
to donate to societies and to attend society meetings and read their annual reports
and other literature. For example, John Thornton first donated tothe Society
for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor in 1761; twelve years
later, his eldest son joined, and two years after that, Lucy Thornton and their
three other children joined and began attending seminars and meetings of the
11
12
See Roshan Allpress, “Making Philanthropists: Entrepreneurs, Evangelicals and the
Growth of Philanthropy in the British World, 1756–1840” (Unpublished DPhil thesis,
University of Oxford, 2015), 41–141.
Milton M. Klein, An Amazing Grace: John Thornton and the Clapham Sect (New Orleans:
University Press of the South, 2004).