Who was Elizabeth Fry?
Elizabeth Fry was a well-to-do Quaker woman who lived between 1780 and 1845 in England. • She became famous for her work in Newgate Prison where she initiated education for women and children who were ‘housed’ together. • She also provided clothing and sewing materials for the inmates as these items were not provided by the jail. • She established rules in the jail: no drinking, neat and clean dress, as well as ensuring that scriptures were read twice a day. • She impressed the authorities with her ability to bring some order to the chaos and they began to seek her advice.
Elizabeth Gurney Fry was born in England in 1780. Although raised in a wealthy influential Quaker family, at 17 she chose to work with those less fortunate members of society. In Elizabeth’s time, methods of handling women in conflict with the law had altered little since the Middle Ages: Women prisoners were still whipped in public until 1817 and in private until 1820. The ducking stool was used in the north of England until 1809 to punish “scolding” women. Branding was not abolished until 1799 and in its last years was done on the face, not on the hand or breast. The last woman was burned at the stake in England in 1789. Prison conditions at that time were also deplorable: • In some of the smaller prisons, the women were not separated from the men and in others, men who were labeled “lunatics”, or in danger from other men, could be placed in the women’s section for the jailer’s convenience. Consequently, many babies were born to the inmate mothers, who then lived in the prison. • In
Elizabeth Fry was an English woman, born in 1780 into a wealthy Quaker family. In 1812, she began visiting women imprisoned in London’s infamous Newgate Prison. Appalled by the squalid conditions of poor and illiterate women incarcerated with their children, Elizabeth Fry began services such as a school for the children, and work projects so the women could earn money for their release. She also advocated with government and the public for female guards and better conditions. Her persistence and compassion led to real change for women in prison. Books: Elizabeth Fry by Janet Whitney Elizabeth Fry by John Kent Elizabeth Fry by Eunice M. Smillie (E.
Elizabeth Fry (Gurney) was born in England in 1780. Although raised in a wealthy influential Quaker family, at 17 she chose to work with those less fortunate members of society. Early in 1813, Elizabeth Fry visited the women’s section of Newgate Prison in London for the first time, and was shocked by the appalling conditions in which the female prisoners and their children were kept. In some of the smaller prisons, the women were not separated from the men and in others, men who were labeled “lunatics”, or in danger from other men, could be placed in the women’s section for the jailer’s convenience. Consequently, many babies were born to the inmate mothers, who then lived in the prison. In some smaller prisons, female prisons were kept for the domestic or sexual convenience of the jailer. Prison fees were hard on women because they were often friendless and penniless. In some prisons, the doors between the men and women’s sections were unlocked at night. Prostitution was often the only
Nearly 200 years ago, Elizabeth Gurney Fry, a Quaker, entered Newgate Prison in England. She found women prisoners and their children being held in degrading conditions. For the next 30 years, she devoted her life to changing those conditions. Before her death in 1845, she had inspired the formation of groups of women visitors in every major prison housing women in Britain, and forced the recognition of the need to house women prisoners in separate institutions staffed by women. In her capacity as an expert on the need to change conditions for women in prison, she was consulted by governments and prison authorities in places as distant and disparate as Russia and Australia . Elizabeth Fry was born in 1780 in England. Her grandfather, the Scottish theologian, Robert Barclay, played an important role in defining early Quaker beliefs. It was fortunate for all concerned that Quakers believed in the equality of women (250 years before women won the vote); otherwise, Elizabeth Fry’s unusual
