William Shrubsole (II)

SHRUBSOLE, William (II). b. Sheerness, Kent, 21 November 1759; d. Highbury, London, 23 August 1829. He was the son of a mast-maker in the Sheerness dockyard. He became a shipwright himself, but in 1785 he went to London and became a clerk in the Bank of England, rising to become Secretary to the Committee of the Treasury. He was founder and enthusiastic supporter of the London Missionary Society (founded 1795), for which he wrote ‘Bright as the sun's meridian blaze’; and he actively supported other religious bodies such as the Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society. During the first part of his life in London he was a member of St Anne’s Church, Blackfriars, but he later became a...