The ‘Notorious’ William Knibb: A Brief Biography

Bruised, shackled, and soaking wet, William Knibb sat in the Montego Bay courthouse shivering from both the cold of the night and a fever he had been fighting off for days. Four militiamen armed with bayonets surrounded him and the three other prisoners. The flash of musket fire occasionally lit up the room, and the noise of nearby battle could be heard through the night. One guard threatened to pierce Knibb with his bayonet if he didn’t alert the other prisoners that they would all be shot the next morning. Knibb must have wondered how he had ended up in such a place.^{11 .} Philip Wright, Knibb the ‘Notorious’ Slaves’ Missionary, 1803-1845, (London, UK: Sidgewick and Jackson: 1973): 74-75. Yet the reason is no mystery to us: he loved the gospel, and he hated slavery.

William Knibb first arrived in Jamaica when he was barely in his twenties. He was born in 1803 in Kettering, England in a Christian home and under the strong influence of his mother. When William was twelve, he and his older brother Thomas left for Bristol to be apprenticed as printers. The printer they would learn from was none other than Andrew Fuller’s son, and the church they attended was pastored by John Ryland Jr. Both Fuller and Ryland were founding members of the Baptist Missionary Society. Thomas and William found themselves surrounded by news from Baptist missionaries. It wouldn’t be long before both Knibb boys were baptized and received into membership at Broadmead Baptist Church. Shortly thereafter, Thomas confessed his desire to serve on the mission field.

Thomas accepted a teaching post in Kingston, Jamaica in 1822. He and his new bride set sail the same year, hoping to see the gospel flourish in that country. Tragically, Thomas fell ill with fever fifteen months after arriving in Jamaica. He died three days later. William was devastated at the news but responded by announcing his attention to go to Jamaica and take up his brother’s post. He promptly married Mary Watkins (an active member at Broadmead) and then set sail.

The voyage was rough. Storms delayed the journey, and the newly married missionary couple was often confined to their cabin due to seasickness. Several planters aboard the ship scandalized the young missionary by bragging about adultery and taking advantage of slave women.^{22 .} Wright, Knibb the ‘Notorious’ Slaves’ Missionary, 22.

William would not learn the true horrors of slavery until he was actually in Jamaica. While on a tour of the island by fellow missionaries, William saw whips, chains, and the brutal task of harvesting sugarcane. The stories that had made their way back to England had been sugarcoated. When Knibb saw what slavery in the Caribbean truly entailed, he broke down and wept.

William was also deeply alarmed over what he perceived to be a lack of religious fervor on the island. As a British colony, Jamaica was dominated by the Anglican church. But services in the Anglican churches were not well attended; many of the clergy were only serving on the island because of their financial interests in Jamaica’s economy. William couldn’t believe that the island’s slaves were pushed to work on the Lord’s Day rather than attend church. This clear violation of the Sabbath (showing his Particular Baptist heritage) revealed a complete lack of care for souls by the religious authorities.

Knibb paid to restore the school he taught at. It eventually hosted over 200 students (both slave and free). He also began making a name for himself as a preacher. This was a dangerous move since dissenters (those who refused to join the church of England) were not allowed to preach without a license and Knibb had been sent as a teacher, not a preacher. After a few run-ins with the local law enforcement, the Baptist Missionary Society advocated for William to receive a license to preach. This led Knibb to move from Kingston to Savanna-la-mar to pastor a small congregation of African slaves. He began his pastorate when he was twenty-six.

On the night of Easter Sunday in 1830, William Knibb fell ill and was unable to lead a prayer meeting that regularly met in his home. In his absence, Sam Swiney, a plantation slave and deacon of the church, stood up to lead those who had gathered for prayer. Someone walking by mistook what Sam was doing for preaching, which was illegal, and promptly broke up the meeting. The next day the magistrates were alerted and Swiney was arrested along with several other members of Knibb’s congregation. Knibb rushed to the defense of his deacon, but when he attempted to explain the situation to the judge he was promptly shouted down and threatened with the loss of his preaching license. Swiney was sentenced to public flogging and hard labor in service of the colony. On the day of his flogging, Swiney was held face down by four slaves and whipped repeatedly. Knibb described the scene:

Next morning I went to see him flogged, determined to support him as well as I could, however painful to my feelings. There he was, a respectable tradesman, though a slave, stretched indecently on the ground, held firmly down by four slaves, two at his hands and two at his feet. The driver was merciful, or every lash would have fetched blood. “O what have I done,” was the only exclamation that escaped from his lips, accompanied by a moan extorted by the pain. He was raised from the ground, chained to a convict, and immediately sent to work. . . . I walked by his side down the whole bay, to the no small annoyance of his persecutors. Amidst them I took him by the hand, told him to be of good cheer, and said, loud enough for them all to hear, “Sam, whatever you want, send to me and you shall have it.”^{33 .} As quoted in Philip Wright, Knibb the ‘Notorious’ Slaves’ Missionary, 1803-1845, (London, UK: Sidgewick and Jackson: 1973): 46.

This incident became the catalyst that propelled Knibb into a whirlwind ministry. In 1830, he moved from his small congregation in Savanna-la-mar to a Baptist congregation with more than six hundred slaves in Falmouth. Knibb’s reputation had grown so large at this point that when the church voted on his installment, the entire congregation stood in support and wept with joy.

He was beloved by his new church, but his defiance against the pro-slavery establishment brought him into direct opposition with the Jamaican authorities and those who benefitted from the plantation system. Reactionary forces against anti-slavery sentiments (in no small part due to Knibb’s influence) came down hard on the island. Old slave codes were reinstated along with harsher curfews. The worst measure brought against slaves was a ban on slave congregations meeting for worship of any kind. Knibb boldly protested all these censures, making it known he would not obey.^{44 .} Peter Masters, Missionary Triumph Over Slavery: William Knibb & Jamaican Emancipation (London, UK: Wakeman Trust: 2006): 15.

During this time a false report spread regarding the planters’ refusal to comply with the king’s supposed plan to end slavery in Jamaica. A young slave named Sam Sharpe responded by leading a revolt against the planters over Christmas in 1831. In response to this rebellion, several plantations were burned to the ground. Though not all the island’s slaves participated, Jamaican authorities were unprejudiced in their response. They held all slaves accountable for what happened. They also punished the dissenting missionaries, which resulted in a number of notable arrests. William Knibb specifically was taken from his sick bed, loaded into a canoe, and transported from Falmouth to Montego Bay where he spent his night being harassed by militiamen and threatened with execution.

By God’s grace, Knibb and his missionary compatriots weren’t shot the next morning. In fact, a man friendly to the missionaries posted their bail, allowing them to return home. After three weeks of investigation, the authorities found no evidence that Knibb or the others were involved in the uprising. The charges against them were dropped. Frustrated by Knibb’s acquittal, Anglican reverend George Bridges formed the Colonial Church Union, an association of settlers whose aim it was to combat the anti-slavery momentum on the island. Rather than taking their energy to the Colonial Assembly, they threatened the lives of the missionaries and their families, harassing slave congregations and destroying their church buildings. When all was said and done, eleven Baptist churches were destroyed (including Knibb’s church in Falmouth). On several occasions, mobs formed around the idea of killing William Knibb. On one occasion a group of fifty planters stoned Knibb’s lodging over the course of three consecutive nights.

The persecution became so great on the island that some missionaries returned to England to plead their cause. Many thought Knibb should be one to go due to his notoriety, but he initially refused to leave his congregation. In a letter written to a fellow missionary who had already been selected to go back to Britain, Knibb wrote,

I hope I shall not have to leave the island; I feel as if it were impossible to quit the people. Do pray for us. Do entreat the British Christians for us. Many have bound themselves by an oath to murder us. Shall we look and cry to Britain in vain? I know we shall not to God. Remember our poor slave members! Their sufferings now would make a heart of stone weep. If something is not done speedily for them, many of them will be martyrs. That God in his infinite mercy may guide, bless, keep, and preserve you, and give you and the committee all the wisdom you so much need in this deeply bitter trial, is my earnest prayer.^{55 .} John Howard Hinton, Memoir of William Knibb, Missionary in Jamaica, (London, UK: Houlston and Stoneman: 1849): 139.

Eventually, however, Knibb was convinced that the best thing for his congregation was for him to plead their cause back in Britain.

When Knibb reached England, he immediately embarked on a preaching tour all over the United Kingdom to garner support for their cause. Peter Masters described Knibb’s appeal as having “a power altogether overwhelming.” He writes, “Sceptics were convinced, waverers became decided, apathetic people were roused, and great numbers of hearts everywhere kindled to irrepressible support.”^{66 .} Masters, Missionary Triumph Over Slavery, 27. Knibb would go on to travel back and forth between Jamaica and England three more times. Along with William Wilberforce, he became one of the most important voices for abolition at the time when the British government outlawed slavery in their colonies.

Back in Jamaica, Knibb played a key role in another movement—the Jamaican Great Awakening. After the slaves’ emancipation, thousands flocked to the dissenting churches (Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.). During 1838–1845, Knibb helped to plant 47 churches in Jamaica. Knibb’s own congregation admitted into membership more than 3000 people (although over two thirds of these were eventually sent out to plant new churches). Knibb personally baptized over 6000 new converts into Baptist congregations. Peter Masters estimates that more than 22,000 people were baptized on their profession of faith in total.^{77 .} Masters, Missionary Triumph Over Slavery, 48.

In 1845, Knibb became quite ill during travel. Within a week, yellow fever had taken him. He died on November 15, 1845. He was only forty-three years old. His funeral was attended by more than 8000 men and women, all of them attesting to the impact he had on their faith. His wife outlived him by 25 years. She stayed in Jamaica as a missionary. Knibb’s tombstone now resides outside of the William Knibb Memorial Baptist church in Falmouth, Jamaica. It reads:

This monument was erected by the emancipated slaves to whose enfranchisement and elevation his indefatigable exertions so largely contributed; by his fellow labourers who admired and loved him, and deeply deplore his early removal: and by friends of various creeds and parties, as an expression of their esteem for one whose praise as a man, a philanthropist, and a Christian minister, is in all the churches, and who, being dead, yet speaketh.

Few ministers will have ministries which take the exact shape or have the wide-reaching impact of William Knibb’s. Nonetheless, his life and ministry serve as a model for us today. Knibb lived in a time when the prevailing atmosphere could have discouraged him from calling out sin and opposing evil. Instead, Knibb preached the gospel, opposed slavery, and loved and served his church. I pray that the Lord would help us be as bold as William Knibb was in his own day.