Beilby Porteus (1731-1809) was in 1762 appointed chaplain to Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1769 became chaplain to the king. In 1776 he became Bishop of Chester, and became known as a strong supporter of the movement for the abolition of slavery. He was a supporter of the Clapham Sect of Evangelical reformers, which included Hannah More amongst its members, and was one of her regular correspondents. Porteus became Bishop of London in 1787, on the recommendation of William Pitt the Younger. He was keen on overseas evangelism, took a close interest in the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was an early patron of the Church Missionary Society and a founder member of the British and Foreign Bible Society.