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Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1780-1845), Quaker Prison Reformer

© Bill Samuel

The next day, Elizabeth and her sister-in-law went to Newgate prison. The turnkeys warned them that the women were wild and savage, and they would be in physical danger. However, they went in anyway. On that and two more visits, they brought warm clothing and clean straw for the sick to lie on. Elizabeth also prayed for the prisoners.

After these initial visits, family difficulties, including the death of a daughter, kept her away from the prison for years. But during the Christmas season of 1816, she returned and began a ministry that lasted many years. She asked the women what she could do for their children, and together they agreed on the need for a school.

In 1817, Elizabeth organized a group of women into the Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate. This group organized a school, and provided materials so the prisoners could sew, knit and make goods for sale. They took turns visiting the prison and reading the Bible to the prisoners.

Spreading Influence and Hardships

Elizabeth's work soon extended well beyond Newgate prison. In 1818, a committee of the House of Commons asked her to testify on prison conditions, the first woman to be called as such a witness. Societies like the Newgate Association sprung up at other prisons in Britain and Europe.

Her concerns went beyond the prisons. She also set up District Visiting Societies to help the poor, libraries for coast guards, and a nurses' training school. She influenced Florence Nightingale's nurse training program, and nurses trained by Fry's school accompanied Nightingale to the Crimea.

In 1827, Fry published a book called Observations, on the visiting superintendence and government of female prisoners. In that book, she not only laid out the need for prison reform, but raised broader concerns. She called for more opportunites for women and strongly condemned the death penalty.

Fry was so well known and respected that her work received support from Queen Victoria, and the king of Prussia visited her. But this did not save her from humiliation when her husband's bank crashed in 1828. Not only did this plunge the family into poverty, but their Quaker meeting disowned (removed from membership) her husband because he had put other people's money at risk.

Fry's brother Joseph John Gurney stepped in and took over her husband's business arrangement, arranging for his debts to be paid. He also arranged an annual stipend for Elizabeth, enabling her to continue her work. Fry continued her work until her death in 1845. More than a thousand people stood in silence as she was laid to rest in a Quaker burial ground.