Vanity Fair cartoon of the chief antagonists in the debate over evolution, Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley. Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873) was an English bishop in the Church of England. Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his time. He is best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution - most notably at a famous debate in 1860 during which he is said to have asked Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was an English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.