William Dillwyn diary

William Dillwyn (1743-1824) was a Quaker born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1743, to John and Susanna Painter Dillwyn. On May 19, 1768, in Burlington, New Jersey, Dillwyn married Sarah Logan Smith, daughter of John Smith of Burlington. Sarah Dillwyn died after giving birth to the couple’s only child, Susanna, in 1769. Susanna (1769-1819) would go on to marry Samuel Emlen (1766-1783).

Dillwyn was educated at the Public School, Philadelphia (later the William Penn Charter School) by Anthony Benezet, a Quaker abolitionist. In 1772, Dillwyn traveled, with letters of recommendation from Benezet, to Carolina to study slavery. In 1773, Dillwyn, Richard Smith, and Daniel Wells wrote Brief considerations on slavery, and the expediency of its abolition: with some hints on the means whereby it may be gradually effected.

Dillwyn moved to England in 1774, and married Sarah Weston in 1777. The couple had eight children: Lewis Weston (August 21, 1778), John Crook (July 18, 1780), Judith Nichols (August 26, 1781), Ann (September 11, 1783), Lydia (April 11, 1785), George (February 1, 1787), Sarah Musgrave (March 14, 1790), and Gulielma (August 16, 1792).

In England, Dillwyn remained involved in the anti-slave trade and anti-slavery movement. Dillwyn was a member of the Meeting for Sufferings Committee on the Slave Trade, and was one of the original members of the London Abolition Committee in 1787.

William Dillwyn died on September 28, 1824, and was buried at Tottenham, Middlesex.