SOURCE: A Genealogy and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol IV
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, esq. the eloquent and able philanthropist, was born at Hull 24th August, 1759, and received his education at the University of Cambridge. In 1780 he was returned to parliament by his native town, and eventually became, after a very severe contest, one of the knights of the shire for the great northern county. He m. in 1797, Barbara, eldest daughter of Isaac Spooner, esq. of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, by Barbara, his wife, sister of the first Lord Calthorpe (see vol. i. p. 185),