Elizabeth Fry: an All Round Georgian/Victorian Good Egg

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How many of us in England have taken a really close look at our £5 notes recently?  If you have, then you’ll instantly recognise the above lady.  No, it’s not the face of Queen Elizabeth II – try looking at the flip side… Since 2002 Elizabeth Fry has been on the reverse of the note which seems extremely fitting as she was the daughter of a banker and then the wife of a banker.

Elizabeth was born in Norwich (UK) in 1780 – the third daughter of John Gurney, partner in Gurney’s Bank.  Her family on both paternal and maternal sides, were strict Quakers, her mother, Catherine, being a member of the Barclay family (owners of Barclays Bank).  After bearing her 12th child, Catherine became ill and when she died, Elizabeth was expected to help raise her younger siblings.

As a young woman, Elizabeth became involved in charitable work and became deeply involved in collecting clothes for the poor, visiting the sick and even setting up a Sunday School at home where she taught local children to read.  From there, she went on to become interested in penal reform and began visiting the local correction house.  Primarily her concern was with the children, but as time progressed she became more and more interested in the welfare of the women.

At the age of 19 she was introduced to Joseph Fry who was a partner in her father’s Bank and also a Quaker.  He was the son of a successful merchant in Essex and his uncle was one J S Fry (the founder of the chocolate factory that produced Fry’s Chocolate Cream!!).  In August of the following year, 1800, Joseph and Elizabeth married and moved to London and between then and 1812 Elizabeth had borne eight children but still took a great interest in humanitarian issues.

In 1813 a friend of the Fry family, Stephen Grellett, who was known to be of a similar mind to Elizabeth, informed her that he had visited Newgate Prison and was shocked at what he’d seen.  He told Elizabeth that the women’s quarters were worse than the men’s.  Despite Stephen’s protestations, Elizabeth insisted that she should visit and, having done so, discovered that there were about 300 women and their children in two wards and two cells.  Some of the prisoners had already been convicted but others were merely awaiting trial; they slept on the floor without bedding and cooked, washed and slept in the same cell.