s Model of Wilberforce House by Waterfall Heraldic China, c.1906-1927 - Hull Museums Collections

Model of Wilberforce House by Waterfall Heraldic China, c.1906-1927

This ornament was made as a souvenir of Wilberforce House Museum in Hull. Wilberforce House was the first British museum to explore the history of slavery and its abolition. It opened to the public in 1906.

The house at 25 High Street is special because the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce was born there in 1759. He spent part of his childhood at Wilberforce House.

Wilberforce House is one of the oldest buildings in Hull. It was built around 1660 by William Catlyn for Hugh Lister. The Listers were a powerful family in Hull. The house was extended in the 1730s and 1760s to make the building that exists today.

Hull merchant John Thornton lived at 25 High Street in the early 1700s. William Wilberforce’s grandfather came to Hull to work as an apprentice for him. Wilberforce’s grandfather married John Thornton’s daughter Sarah in 1711. He eventually bought 25 High Street in 1732.

William Wilberforce was born in one of the upstairs rooms on 24th August 1759. To celebrate his birth, his family decorated the ceiling of the main stairway with the family crest, the eagle.

William Wilberforce was forced to sell the house in the early 1830s to pay off his son’s business debts. Before Wilberforce House became a museum, it was rented out to merchants as offices.

The house was bought by Hull City Council in 1903, after a campaign by Councillor John Brown to save it. When Wilberforce House opened as a museum on 24th August 1906 it displayed objects relating to Wilberforce, slavery and local history.

During the Second World War Wilberforce House escaped bombing raids that destroyed the houses opposite and the warehouse behind. The museum was completely redeveloped to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade in 2007.