Elizabeth Fry - Quaker Heroine

ELIZABETH FRY QUAKER HEROINE By JANET WHITNEY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON Published by LITTLE, AND COMPANY 1937 To my husband and my father FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS are due and are hereby gratefully rendered to Pendle Hill, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, Quaker Graduate Centre, whose grant of a Research Fellowship suggested the work in the first place and afforded the peace and quiet in which to get on with it, in the second. To Francis R. Taylor of Philadelphia, for his generous loan of the manuscript of William Saverys journal. To Quintin Gurney of Norwich and to Miss A. Isabel Fry of Loughton, England, for making available the use of a number of hitherto unpublished letters, journals, and family pictures. To John Nickalls for the facilities of the Friends Reference Library, London to the authorities of the Library of the British Museum for similar courtesies to the librarians of Haver ford and Swarthmore Colleges for their cooperation in obtaining for me the loan of rare books and to Edward Weeks of the Atlantic Monthly Press for many valuable suggestions. Quotations whose origin is not otherwise given are from the unpublished manuscripts aforementioned. More personal acknowledgments would be too numerous, but a single exception must be made of Miss Rosemary Gurney, great-granddaughter of Daniel Gurney, for her tales of family traditions, and for the conveyance, in her own person, of the Gurney quality. JANET WHITNEY CONTENTS FOREWORD vii I THE FAMILY AT EARLHAM ... 3 II BETSY 19 III LONDON 46 IV THE CHANGE 64 V JOSEPH FRY 78 VI THE YOUNG WIFE 98 VII FAMILY MATTERS . . . . .122 VIII THE LADY OF THE MANOR . . .157 IX STEPHEN GRELLET . . . . .180 X INTRODUCTION TO NEWGATE . . .190 XI NEWGATEIN EARNEST .... 205 XII REMEDIES FOR CRIME .... 226 XIII PUBLIC LIFE 248 XIV TROUBLED WATERS ..... 266 XV ROYAL PROGRESS 297 XVI TIME AND THE HOUR .... 330 ILLUSTRATIONS ELIZABETH FRY IN 1823 . . . Frontispiece ELIZABETH GURNEY, AGED ABOUT NINETEEN . . 80 THE QUAKER WEDDING ..... 96 SAMUEL GURNEY . . . . . . .136 ELIZABETH FRY ENTERING NEWGATE PRISON . .194 ELIZABETH FRY READING TO THE PRISONERS AT NEWGATE, 1823 250 JOSEPH FRY IN 1823 278 THE CHILDREN OF JOSEPH AND ELIZABETH FRY LIVING AT HOME, FEBRUARY 1830 . . . 298 Joseph John Aug. 2, 1788 April 7, 1808 1. JaneBirkbeck Jan. 4, 1847 Sept. 10, 1817 2. Mary Fowler July 18, 1827 2. Eliza Paul Kirkbride Oct. 21, 1841 Daniel March 9, 1791 Lady Harriet June 16, 1880 Jemima Hay Dec. 12, 1822 1 Catherine Bell was a great-granddaughter of Robert Barclay, author of Barclays Apology. 2 Second of the name.