Moncure Conway (1832-1907)

Moncure Conway was born the son of Virginia slave-owner, and became an outspoken abolitionist and defender of freedom. Starting out as a Methodist preacher, Conway moved into Unitarianism, taking over the ministry of South Place Chapel in 1863, which he led with great success for over two decades. Conway lived, wrote, and spoke by the belief that ‘those who think at all think freely’, and was arguably himself a humanist by the end of his life. His efforts to secure Stanton Coit as his successor at South Place, officially renamed it an ethical society, enabling its final evolution into a humanist organisation. In recognition, Conway Hall was named for him.

Moncure Conway was born on 17 March 1832 at Middleton Plantation, Stafford County, Virginia.  His parents were pious methodists: his father a planter, attorney, judge, and slave owner. His upbringing was coloured by the diverse influences of his socially prominent male relations, and the cultural and abolitionist tendencies of his mother and female relatives.

The American Civil War (1861-1865) saw his father remain in the south, his two brothers in the Confederate Army, and his mother and sister (pro-Union) in the north. In 1861 and 1862, Conway wrote two anti-slavery books, The Rejected Stone and The Golden Hour, as well as co-editing anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth. Slavery, ‘this wild disease of the South’, he challenged in word and deed: in 1862, with his wife, Conway led his family’s 31 slaves from Virginia to Ohio by train. A community established by two of this group, Dunmore and Eliza Gwinn, was named Conway Colony. 

Over the following years, Conway replaced pews with normal seats and dropped the title of minister. He referred to ‘discourses’ rather than sermons and substituted prayers for devotional readings, or ‘meditations’. The Committee continued to support Conway through these progressive changes, agreeing that ‘the service would gain rather than lose in warmth, earnestness, and devotion’ in following his suggestions. Conway’s Sacred Anthology, from which he read beginning in 1873, was published in the belief that:

In this collection, Conway aimed ‘to separate the more universal and enduring treasures contained in ancient scriptures, from the rust of superstition and the dross of ritual’. The presence of texts from Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism testifies to the influence of Eastern religion on Conway’s own belief and philosophical eclecticism.

He was a passionate supporter of the women’s suffrage movement, and spoke alongside Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, and Robert Browning at the first open public meeting in support of women getting the vote, in 1868. In 1878, Conway attempted to personally endow what would have been the first women’s college at Oxford. Historian Dr Laura Schwartz writes that the religious establishment, already concerned that University College London was leading ‘respectable women’ away from religion, made haste instead to establish their own such college, Lady Margaret Hall, instead.

Conway was a prolific writer, contributing articles to British and American periodicals on a diverse range of subjects. He also acted as the English agent for a number of notable American authors, including Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Louisa May Alcott. Conway’s artistic predilections extended too to theatre and art, and he enjoyed close friendships with many key Pre-Raphaelites. One of these, Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), painted Ellen Dana Conway’s portrait in 1873 (now in Conway Hall). 

Borne out by the hall that bears his name, Moncure Conway was a central figure in the development of South Place through rational religion towards an ever increasing humanism. It was Conway who, in his unwavering defence of progressive freethought and strong support of his South Place successor Stanton Coit, enabled its renaming as an ‘Ethical’ Society. As a devoted abolitionist, feminist, and thinker, Conway’s legacy is one of compassion, principle, and lifelong service to humanity.