Samuel Augustus Barnett

Samuel Augustus Barnett (8 February 1844 – 17 June 1913) was a Church of England cleric and social reformer who was particularly associated with the establishment of the first university settlement, Toynbee Hall, in east London in 1884. He is often referred to as Canon Barnett, having served as Canon of Westminster Abbey from 1906 until death. Early life Samuel Augustus Barnett was born in Bristol, the elder son of Francis Augustus Barnett, an iron manufacturer. After a private education by tutors he entered Wadham College, Oxford, in 1862, leaving in 1866, whereafter he visited the United States. In the following year he was ordained as a deacon and became the curate of St Mary's, Bryanston Square before being ordained as a priest in 1868. In 1873, he married Henrietta Octavia Weston Rowland (1851–1936), heiress, social reformer and author, later Dame Henrietta Barnett, DBE, who had been a co-worker of Octavia Hill. Both were social reformers and philanthropists with broad cultural interests. Later that year, the Barnetts moved to the impoverished Whitechapel parish of St. Jude's intent on improving social conditions in one of London's worst slums. Social reform