Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry
With Extracts from Her Journal and Letters

This memoir of philanthropist, prison reformer and Quaker Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) was published by her daughters in 1847.

Elizabeth Fry (Author), Katharine Fry (Edited by), Rachel Elizabeth Cresswell (Edited by)

9781108030366, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 July 2011

538 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.68 kg

Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney, 1780–1845) was descended from two wealthy Quaker banking families. Her Quaker faith was crucial to her adult life and she became active in social reform. Despite having eleven children, she was active in community work, and became a Quaker minister. Persuaded to visit the women's wing in Newgate Prison in 1813, she was appalled at the conditions in which the prisoners, and their children, lived. She became a pioneer in seeking to improve the situation for women in prisons and on transportation ships. The British Ladies' Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners was probably the first national British women's society. Fry's ideas on the humane treatment of prisoners influenced international legal systems. This memoir, based on her letters and diaries, was edited by two of her daughters, and was first published in 1847. Volume 2 covers the period from 1826 to 1845.

14. 1826–1827. Ladies' prison meeting
15. 1827–1829. Illness of her sister Rachel Gurney, gradual decline and death
16. 1829–1830. Foreign correspondence
17. 1831–1833. Journey to Lynn
18. 1833–1834. Sojourn in Jersey
19. 1834–1836. Death of the Duke of Gloucester
20. 1837–1838. Earlham
21. 1839. Sale at Crosby Hall for the Ladies' British Society
22. 1840–1841. Audience of the Queen
23. 1841–1842. Letter to Colonel Jebb
24. 1842–1844. Death of a grandaughter
25. 1844–1845. Return from Walmer.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]