   #copyright

Elizabeth Fry

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1750-1900; Political People

   Elizabeth Fry
   Elizabeth Fry

   Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845) was an
   English prison reformer, social reformer and philanthropist.

   Fry was the driving force in legislation to make the treatment of
   prisoners more humane, and she was supported in her efforts by a
   reigning monarch. Since 2002, she has been depicted on the Bank of
   England £5 note.

Birth and family background

   Elizabeth Gurney was born in Gurney Court, off Magdalen Street,
   Norwich, Norfolk, England to a Quaker family. Her family home as a
   child was Earlham Hall, Norwich, which is now part of the University of
   East Anglia. Her father, Joseph Gurney, was a partner in Gurney's bank.
   Her mother, Catherine, was a part of the Barclay family, who were among
   the founders of Barclays Bank. Elizabeth's mother died when she was
   only twelve years old. As one of the oldest girls in the family, she
   was partly responsible for the care and training of the younger
   children, including her brother Joseph John Gurney.

Awakening of social concern

   At eighteen years old, the young Elizabeth Gurney was deeply moved by
   the preaching of William Savery, an American Quaker. Motivated by his
   words, she took an interest in the poor, the sick, and the prisoners.
   She collected old clothes for the poor, visited those who were sick in
   her neighbourhood, and started a Sunday school in the summer house to
   teach children to read. She met Joseph Fry (1777 –1861), a banker and
   also a Quaker, when she was twenty years old. They married on 19 August
   1800 at the Norwich Goat Lane Friends Meeting House and moved to St.
   Mildred's Court in the City of London. They had eleven children in all
   (Hatton, 2005, 13), born between 1801 and 1822, including Katherine Fry
   (1801-1886), who wrote a History of the Parishes of East and West Ham
   (1888). Elizabeth Fry was recorded as a Minister of the Religious
   Society of Friends in 1811. Joseph and Elizabeth Fry lived in Plashet
   House in East Ham between 1809 and 1829, moving then to Upton Lane in
   Forest Gate

Fry's prison work

   Elizabeth Fry
   Elizabeth Fry

   Prompted by a family friend, Stephen Grellet, Fry visited Newgate
   prison. The conditions she saw there horrified her. The women's section
   was overcrowded with women and children, some of whom had not even
   received a trial. They slept on the floor and did their own cooking and
   washing in the small cells in which they slept.

   She returned the following day with food and clothes for some of the
   prisoners. She was unable to further her work for nearly 4 years
   because of difficulties within the Fry family, including financial
   difficulties in the Fry bank. Fry returned in 1816 and was eventually
   able to found a prison school for the children who were imprisoned with
   their parents. She began a system of supervision and required the women
   to sew and to read the Bible. In 1817 she helped found the Association
   for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate.

   Thomas Fowell Buxton, Fry's brother-in-law, was elected to Parliament
   for Weymouth and began to promote her work among his fellow MPs. In
   1818 Fry gave evidence to a House of Commons committee on the
   conditions prevalent in British prisons, becoming the first woman to
   present evidence in Parliament.

   Fry and her brother Joseph John Gurney took up the cause of abolishing
   capital punishment. At that time, people in England could be executed
   for over 200 crimes. Early appeals to the Home Secretary were all
   rejected, until Sir Robert Peel became the Home Secretary, they finally
   got a receptive audience. They persuaded Peel to introduce a series of
   prison reforms that included the Gaols Act 1823. Fry and Gurney went on
   a tour of the prisons in Great Britain. They published their findings
   of inhumane conditions in a book entitled Prisons in Scotland and the
   North of England.

Fry's other humanitarian work

   Fry also helped the homeless, establishing a "nightly shelter" in
   London after seeing the body of a young boy in the winter of 1819/
   1820. In 1824, during a visit to Brighton, she instituted the Brighton
   District Visiting Society. The society arranged for volunteers to visit
   the homes of the poor and provide help and comfort to them. The plan
   was successful and was duplicated in other districts and towns across
   Britain.

   After her husband went bankrupt in 1828, Fry's brother became her
   business manager and benefactor. Thanks to him her work went on and
   expanded.

   In 1840 Fry opened a training school for nurses. Her programme inspired
   Florence Nightingale who took a team of Fry's nurses to assist wounded
   soldiers in the Crimean War.

Fry's reputation

   Fry became well known in society. Some people criticized her for having
   such an influential role as a woman. Others alleged that she was
   neglecting her duties as a wife and mother in order to conduct her
   humanitarian work. One admirer was Queen Victoria, who granted her an
   audience a few times and contributed money to her cause.

Death

   Fry died at Ramsgate on 13 October 1845 and her remains were buried in
   the Friends' burial ground at Barking. It is reported that over one
   thousand people stood in silence as her body was buried.

Posthumous

   Fry has two plaques at her birthplace Gurney Court, off Magdalen
   Street, Norwich and one on her childhood home, Earlham Hall, plus there
   is an Elizabeth Fry Road in Earlham. There is also a plaque on St.
   Mildred's Court in the City of London where she lived when she was
   first married, which in turn is remembered in St. Mildred's Road in
   Earlham.

   In 2002 she was depicted on the Bank of England five pound note. Fry is
   also depicted on two panels of the Quaker Tapestry—panels E5 and E6. In
   February 2007 a new plaque was placed in her honour on the Friends
   Meeting House in Upper Goat Lane, Norwich.

   The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies honours her memory
   by advocating for women who are in the criminal justice system. They
   also celebrate and promote a National Elizabeth Fry Week in Canada each
   May.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fry"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
