Women Of Norfolk Elizabeth Fry

Born Elizabeth Gurney on May 21st 1780 in Norwich, Norfolk, to banker and merchant, John Gurney (1749-1809) and his wife Catherine Bell (1754-1792), who was a member of the Barclay family who founded the Barclays Bank. The Gurney family was a prominent and influential Quaker family that established the Gurney Bank, which would later be annexed into Barclays Bank in 1896.

At a young age, in 1792, Elizabeth’s mother died and as the oldest child she took on responsibilities of caring for and educating her younger, surviving, siblings: Hannah Gurney (1783-1872), Louisa Gurney (1784-1836), Samuel Gurney (1786-1856), Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847) and Daniel Gurney (1791- 1880). John and Catherine had a total of thirteen children. However, seven of them unfortunately died prematurely.

In 1798, William Savery (1750-1804), an American Quaker, preacher and abolitionist visited Norwich to give a speech at a Quaker meeting of worship, during his tour of Europe, on the subject of working with the poor and sick. This deepened Elizabeth’s Quaker beliefs and had a heavy influence on her later career of radical prison reform. When she was 20 years old, in 1800, Elizabeth met fellow Quaker, banker and merchant, who mostly dealt in the tea industry, Joseph Fry (1777-1861) and on August 19th of that year they married at the Quaker Meeting House on Goats Lane in Norwich, but soon relocated to London as that was where Joseph’s business was located. During their marriage, Elizabeth bore Joseph a total of eleven children, all whom survived; five sons and six daughters.

Whilst in London, Elizabeth continued caring for the poor, which resulted in her being acknowledged as a minister of the Society of Friends in 1811 and saw her travel to Scotland, Ireland, northern England and some parts of Europe. It wasn’t until 1813, that her career in prison and social reform took flight, when she visited Newgate Prison, in London, on the behest of Stephen Grellet (1773-1855), a family friend and French-born Quaker missionary.

The conditions of the prison horrified her; the women’s section of the prison was over-crowded, supervised by all male guards, with women and their children and in some instances, mixed cells of men and women. She also discovered that several of the prisoners had not received a trial, did their own cooking, washing and slept on straw that had been scattered onto the cell floors. The next day, Elizabeth returned with clothing and food to share out between some of the prisoners.

Financial difficulties halted Elizabeth’s efforts for nearly four years after her initial visit to the Newgate prison, as the Fry family bank came under financial strain when William Fry (1768-1858), Joseph’s brother and Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, lent a vast amount of money to his wife’s family. The bank’s troubles were later stabilised by a large investment in the Fry bank by Elizabeth’s brother John Gurney, her brother-in-law Samuel Hoare III (1783-1847) (who had married her sister Louisa) and her cousin, Hudson Gurney (1775-1864).

In 1816, Elizabeth returned to the prison and managed to start a school for the children, who were imprisoned with their mothers, and rather than impose harsh disciplines on the women she suggested giving the prisoners rules on which they could all vote.

This was then followed by the founding of the Association for the Reformation of the Female Prisoners in Ramsgate which provided the female prisoners with materials to teach them certain skills; such as needlework, knitting and patchwork allowing them to be able to find employment when they left the prison.

Elizabeth also promoted the idea of rehabilitation instead of severe punishments in addition to segregation of men and women in the prison, an approach which many authorities and prisons took on in London and was spread throughout England. All of this culminated in the founding of the British Ladies’ Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners in 1821.

Elizabeth then moved onto the welfare of prisoners during transportation, from being huddled in a small open cart through the city where they were vulnerable to objects being thrown at them to being placed on ships. She convinced the governor of Newgate prison to use closed carriages and when visiting transportation ships had the captains implement a system where each prisoner was given a share of food and water, while she herself supplied

each woman with a ‘care package’. These packs contained material scraps, sewing tools, knives and forks, string and a bible; all of which would be vital for their survival when they reached their destination.

Through her work, the movement to stop ship transportation of prisoners began, which was abolished in 1837. However, Elizabeth recorded still visiting ships in 1843. During this time, she visited an estimated 106 transportation ships and sought to help more than 12,000 prisoners.

Often Elizabeth would stay overnight in the prisons to experience the life for herself and would also invite those of the nobility to do the same. This show of faith influenced the prisoners as well, as they tried to improve the conditions themselves.

Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786-1845), Elizabeth’s brother-in-law and husband of her sister Hannah, was elected to Parliament for Weymouth in 1818 and promoted her work among his fellow Members of Parliament, which led to her presenting evidence in the House of Commons that year on the conditions of British Prisons - Elizabeth was the first female to do so.

Aside from prison reform, Elizabeth was an avid humanitarian, and went on to establish ‘night shelters’ around London when she came across the body of a young boy who had died during the winter of 1819. While visiting Brighton, she started the Brighton District Visiting Society, where volunteers would be allocated homes of the poor to visit and provide help and support.

In 1840, Elizabeth opened a training school for nurses, which would later influence social reformer and nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who took a team of nurses from Fry’s school to aid her in the Crimean War (1853-1856). In her later years, Elizabeth would promote education for women, better housing for the poor, better working conditions for nurses and the establishment of soup kitchens. Elizabeth, affectionately known as ‘Betsy’ and posthumously as the ‘Angel of Prisons’, died from a stroke on October 12th 1845 aged sixty-five while in Ramsgate, Kent and was buried at the Quaker burial ground in Barking, London. On her death, the Ramsgate Coast Guard flew their flag at half-mast in respect, which was usually reserved for the death of a ruling monarch.

Following her death, the Mayor of London, John Johnson, held a meeting which founded an institute for former prisoners in her memory called the ‘Elizabeth Fry Refuge’.

It opened its doors in 1849 and was intended to be temporary housing for young women who had been discharged from the authorities.

Then in 1925, it was reconstructed as a charitable organisation, becoming a hostel for women on probation and finally to Reading in 1962 where it is still open today. The Elizabeth Fry Charity continues the legacy of Elizabeth, by providing support to recently paroled women improve their lives and help with avoiding any further offenses.

Most recently, in 2001, she was depicted on the reverse side of the £5 note issued by the Bank of England, that also included her signature, but was replaced by Winston Churchill in 2016.

Fry has been immortalised by many memorials throughout Britain (which includes a building dedicated to her name at the University of East Anglia, Norwich) to ensure her contribution to prison reform and the rights of inmates are never forgotten. #WomenofNorfolk

Article By Luke Wells.