The Angel of Newgate Prison

Who has taken a close look at a £5 banknote recently? If so, you will already have come face to face with our muse for this article. Since her debut in 2002, Elizabeth Fry has appeared on the reverse side of the English £5 banknotes. She is only the second woman to have been given the accolade of this position, following in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale. When the Bank of England published its decision the BBC asked 'the five pound question: Who is Elizabeth Fry, and is she a slightly obscure choice for this rare honour?' Could she really be seen as holding a candle to the Lady of the lamp? [1]

Elizabeth was born in 1780 and grew up ‘Betsy’ Gurney, living in her family home of Earlham Hall in Norfolk. When Betsy was 17 she heard the Quaker Minister William Savery preach and recorded in her journal ‘today I have felt there is a God’.[2] Betsy’s sister Kitty implored her not to mention her conversion to her younger siblings and outwardly Betsy complied, but her beliefs started to inspire her to focus her energy on helping the needy in her native city of Norwich.[3] A second spur to the direction of this young woman’s life came in the shape of another Quaker Minister, Deborah Darby, who prophesied that Betsy was to be ‘a light to the blind, speech to the dumb and feet to the lame’.[4] At the age of 20 Elizabeth started to don the Quaker cap which was to frame her face in history. This did little to deter the admiration of Joseph Fry, and a year after meeting the couple became engaged. As a new century struck, Mrs. Fry set off to make a new life with her husband in London.

Newgate Prison was a landmark at the heart of eighteenth century London, standing where the Old Bailey now resides. Its walls rose sheer up to the cornice in rusticated blocks of masonry, decorated with the figures of Liberty and Plenty with her cornucopia.[5] Picturesque aesthetics masked a multitude of forgotten prisoners from public sight. In 1813 a French Quaker called Stephen Grellet ventured behind Newgate’s walls. He was horrified by what he witnessed and hurried to his friend Elizabeth Fry’s house to ask her for help. That next morning Elizabeth and Anna Buxton discovered over 300 women confined to four small rooms, straw covering the floor on which the women had to sleep in a space no larger than six foot by two. The overcrowding, poor food and lack of fresh air caused typhus to regularly spread amongst the inhabitants. Nothing more like a ‘tomb for the living’ could have been contrived for human misery.[6] A contemporary observer recorded Elizabeth’s remarkable approach ‘I have come to serve you, if you will allow me’ she said. Elizabeth then went on to express her sympathy for them and offer hope that they might improve their condition. She did not say a word about the crimes they had committed, nor reproach them. She came to comfort and not condemn.[7]

Elizabeth arrived at Newgate during a pivotal moment of crisis, when a stagnated system was in visible decay but the road to change appeared steeped in a fog of ambiguity. By 1813 the Napoleonic wars were causing widespread economic distress and the wretchedly poor, oppressed by the high price of food and rising unemployment increasingly turned to crime and prostitution in order to feed their families. In the face of a violent rise in criminal activity, the government sought to simply lock away or dispense with the perpetrators. The death sentence was given out for over 200 acts, including among the lesser offences the theft of a handkerchief. It has been suggested that in no other European country were there so many offences in the statute book that demanded the death penalty.[8]  It was against this backdrop that Elizabeth, driven by her religious compassion, challenged the official belief that female prisoners were hopeless and beyond redemption. She fought for a school to be started in the prison, and established the ‘Ladies Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate’, campaigning to provide the women with paid work. In less than a year the woman of Newgate had made over 20,000 articles for sale, hopelessness started to dissipate and the teaching of self-worth gained ground. This transformation did not go unnoticed.

Thomas Fowell Buxton, an MP and Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, had noted that prisons were places where ‘the public eye does not penetrate and therefore public opinion is not excited’.[9] Although Elizabeth shrank from personal publicity she realised the critical importance of bringing her cause into the public’s consciousness. When the King of Prussia visited England she arranged that his first port of call should be Newgate, and so he went followed by all the Sheriffs of the City of London.[10] Elizabeth brought many into the prison, forcing them to confront the extreme contradictions of the Regency period, one of the most segmented in British history. In Newgate the wealthy and elegant immersed in a world of pleasure met with those bound in the brutal depths of poverty. To attend a morning meeting in the prison required a much sought after permit and bundles of observers would watch as Elizabeth in her low, melodious voice read the Bible to the assembled prisoners and explained carefully its message of love and hope for them. An American ambassador stationed in London wrote ‘I have seen the two great sights of London; St Paul’s Cathedral and Mrs Fry reading the Bible to the prisoners of Newgate’. [11]

Elizabeth did not simply turn prison reform into a fashionable cause, but concrete change was guaranteed when mercy started to appear in the statute books of the nation. She was called upon twice to give evidence to parliamentary committees, in 1818 and later in 1835. Addressing the MP’s Elizabeth spoke eloquently on the positive effects of kindness, harsh punishment might deter people from crime in the short run but it could not change the heart.[12] Her argument that prisons were institutions which should see the restoration of lives and should not simply be designed to enact strict retribution shook the cornerstones of established policy. However, in Westminster Elizabeth became accredited for her ‘genius of good’ and her ally Sir Robert Peel eventually introduced new legislation shaped by her pioneering work at Newgate.

A truly remarkable achievement, set as it was during a century when a female’s professional opinion was so rarely courted by those in authority. She spoke on behalf of the voiceless and oppressed to the leaders of political parties, for whom she could not even vote. When among the guests at a dinner party in Mansion House she took unabashed advantage of being seated in between the Prime Minister and Prince Albert to voice her concerns about the amount of power the often brutal gaolers held in prisons. Elizabeth then cross questioned the Secretary of State, the Foreign Secretary and the Colonial Secretary over differing aspects of international prison reform.[13] Hardly the most jovial of guests, but her goodness, dignity and perseverance proved irresistible and change followed in her wake. Maybe like Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists Elizabeth had prayed for the ability to ‘turn the hearts of the powerful, so they may be prone to feel for, and prompted to help those whose bodies and souls are in slavery’.[14]

Elizabeth’s prison committees were to be replicated all over England, Scotland and Wales. She was an able organiser who knew the value of picking the right people and trusting them to do what was required. As early as 1819 two prison committees had sprung up in Paris due to ‘le bon exemple de Mme Fry’ and in St Petersburg ladies of the Russian Court set up committees to visit female prisoners. Elizabeth would travel across France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Germany inspecting prisons, addressing governments and revealing the human faces behind prison bars. Her humanitarian reach even extended to New South Wales and North Norfolk Island in Australia when she brought the cause of females caught under the transportation sentence to Whitehall’s attention. Elizabeth visited over 120 convict ships set to leave London, providing gifts and encouragement to the 12,000 women on board.[15] Not being completely satisfied she also set up night shelters for the homeless and a refuge for prostitutes in London. By 1840 Elizabeth, now in her sixties, had become concerned with the poor conditions in English hospitals and envisioning a new generation of skilled nurses founded a training house in Guy’s Hospital. When Florence Nightingale was a young woman in her twenties she visited Mrs. Fry, her senior inspiration, and explained her desire to serve God through nursing. Elizabeth recommended a school at which she could receive her training and eventually a number of ‘Fry’s nurses’ would travel with Florence Nightingale to the Crimea.[16] Elizabeth died on 12 October 1845 and was buried in Barking. Over a thousand people turned out to show their respect for a woman who had not shown weariness in her well doing.

Having gone into our purses and pockets, do people now know more about this truly inspiring figure? Her presence in every household has done little to make her a modern household name. This may well have sat comfortably with one whose humility was deep seated. However, a lady whose boundless compassion led her to battle the injustices entrenched in the penal system of her day, who won the respect of convicts and Kings but who ministered to the common humanity in both alike, makes her, beyond question, noteworthy. She is a member of the numerous great and good who have been galvanised into action by their Christian faith and who have positively transformed the society in which they were placed. Her statue now stands at the centre of the Old Bailey Court in London and one can only speculate about what she may conclude on all she surveys.[17]

Endnotes:
[1] BBC News, Tuesday the 21st of May, 2002 ‘The Five Pound Question: Who is Elizabeth Fry?’
[2] June Rose, ‘Prison Pioneer- the Story of Elizabeth Fry’ (Quaker Tapestry booklets, 1994) pp.6
[3] Ibid. pp. 8
[4] Kitty Barne, ‘Elizabeth Fry’ (Penguin Books, 1950) pp. 54
[5] Janet Whitney, ‘Elizabeth Fry Quaker Heroine’ (George G Harrap &Co, 1937) pp. 183
[6] Dennis Bardens, ‘Elizabeth Fry, Britain’s Second Lady on the Five-Pound Note’ (Cahanadon Publications, 2004) pp. 38
[7] ‘Active Benevolence’ in ‘The Hangman’, Vol 1, No.4, Boston, Wed. Jan. 22, 1845.
[8] J. B Priestley, ‘The prince of pleasure and his regency 1811 – 20’(Penguin books, 2002) pp. 37-38
[9] Kitty Barne, ‘Elizabeth Fry’ (Penguin Books, 1950) pp 113
[10] Dennis Bardens, ‘Elizabeth Fry, Britain’s Second Lady on the Five-Pound Note’ (Cahanadon Publications, 2004) pp. 91
[11] Ibid. pp. 159
[12] June Rose, ‘Prison Pioneer- the Story of Elizabeth Fry’ (Quaker Tapestry booklets, 1994) pp. 25
[13] June Rose, ‘Elizabeth Fry’ (Tempus, 2007) pp. 253
[14] Daniel Boucher ‘The Abolition of Slavery and Public Christianity’ Equalities Series: Paper 1 (Care,2009) pp. 43
[15] Geoffrey Hanks, ‘Friend of Prisoners’ (REP, 1981) pp. 23
[16] June Rose, ‘Elizabeth Fry’ (Tempus, 2007) pp. 237
[17] Dennis Bardens, ‘Elizabeth Fry, Britain’s Second Lady on the Five-Pound Note’ (Cahanadon Publications, 2004) pp. 93

Share:

Share

What do you think about this article?