Introduction

Biography

Thomas was the son of so­li­ci­tor Will­iam Raf­fles, hus­band of Ma­ry Ca­ther­ine Har­greaves (mar­ried April 18, 1815), and cou­sin of Tho­mas Stam­ford Bing­ley Raf­fles.

He be­came a clerk in Doc­tors’ Com­mons in 1803, but quit short­ly af­ter­ward.

Through the in­flu­ence of Will­iam Coll­yer, to whose church at Peck­ham he be­longed, Raf­fles en­tered Ho­mer­ton Col­lege, Cam­bridge, in 1805.

He be­gan his min­is­try at Ham­mer­smith, where he was or­dained as a Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter on June 22, 1809. In 1812, he moved to Liv­er­pool, where he suc­ceed­ed Tho­mas Spen­cer as pas­tor of the Great George Street Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, serv­ing there 49 years.

For half a cen­tu­ry, Raf­fles was one of the most in­flu­en­tial Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ters, and helped found the Lan­ca­shire In­de­pen­dent Col­lege. He re­ceived an LLD de­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Aberd­een in De­cem­ber 1820, and a DD de­gree from Un­ion Col­lege, Con­nec­ti­cut, in Ju­ly 1830.

Works

• Memoirs of the Life and Min­is­try of the Rev. Tho­mas Spen­cer, 1813
• A Tour on the Con­ti­nent, 1817
• Brown’s Self-In­ter­pret­ing Bi­ble, 1815 (ed­it­or)
• Poems by Three Friends (joint au­thor)
• The In­ves­ti­gat­or, a Lon­don quar­ter­ly (with Will­iam Colly­er & Dr. J. B. Brown)
• Supplement to Dr. Watts’ Psalms & Hymns, 1853