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Joseph John Gurney[1]

Male 1788 - 1847  (58 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 35 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Joseph John Gurney 
    Birth 2 Aug 1788 
    Gender Male 
    Death 4 Jan 1847 
    Siblings 12 Siblings 
    Person ID I26303  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 20 May 2008 

    Father John Gurney,   b. 10 Sep 1749, Keswick Hall, Norwich, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Oct 1809 (Age 60 years) 
    Mother Catherine Bell,   b. 1755   d. 1794 (Age 39 years) 
    Marriage 1775 
    Family ID F11640  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Jane Birkbeck,   b. 1789   d. 10 Jun 1822 (Age 33 years) 
    Marriage 10 Sep 1817 
    Children 
     1. NN Gurney,   b. 1818   d. 1818 (Age 0 years)
    +2. John Henry Gurney,   b. 1819   d. 1890 (Age 71 years)
    +3. Ann Gurney,   b. 1815, Norwich, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 Jan 1848, Palermo Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 33 years)
    Family ID F11045  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 20 May 2008 

    Family 2 Mary Fowler,   b. 22 Oct 1802   d. 29 Sep 1835 (Age 32 years) 
    Marriage 18 Jul 1827 
    Family ID F11047  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 16 May 2003 

    Family 3 Eliza Paul Kirkbride,   b. 6 Apr 1801   d. 8 Nov 1881 (Age 80 years) 
    Marriage 1841 
    Family ID F11046  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 20 May 2008 

  • Photos Photos (Log in)Photos (Log in)

  • Notes 
    • Joseph Gurney was born in Norwich on 2nd August, 1788. Joseph was the tenth child of John Gurney, a successful banker and a prominent member of the Society of Friends.

      Joseph was the brother of Elizabeth Fry and Hannah Buxton, the wife of Thomas Fowell Buxton. Joseph's mother died when he was a child and he was mainly raised by Elizabeth, who was eight years older than her brother.

      At an early age Joseph showed concern for the poor and badly treated. Elizabeth later recalled that as a child Joseph refused to take sugar in his tea because of the "poor slaves".
      Joseph Gurney was educated at Oxford University but as a Quaker he was not granted a degree. In 1818 Gurney became a minister for the Society of Friends. With his sister, Elizabeth Fry, Gurney played an active role in the prison reform movement. He also joined with Thomas Fowell Buxton and Thomas Clarkson in the struggle against the slave-trade.
      In 1817 Gurney joined his sister's campaign to bring an end to capital punishment. They met several MPs but they found little support for a change in a system where people could be executed for over 200 offences, such as stealing clothes or passing a forged banknote.
      In February 1817 Charlotte Newman and Mary Ann James were sentenced to death for forgery. Gurney and Fry campaigned to have these women prisoners reprived but they were unable to save them from the gallows. The following month they took up the case of Harriet Skelton, a maidservant to a solicitor, who had passed forged banknotes under pressure from her husband. Gurney and Fry, visited Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, and pleaded for her life. Sidmouth rejected their arguments and insisted the execution went ahead. In the House of Commons Sidmouth warned that reformers like Fry and Gurney were dangerous people as they trying to "remove the dread of punishment in the criminal classes."
      Lord Sidmouth's successor as Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel, was much more sympathetic to the views of Gurney and introduced a series of reforms including the 1823 Gaols Act. As a result of the legislation introduced by Peel, there were regular prison inspections, gaolers were paid (before they were dependent on fees from the prisoners) and women warders were put in charge of women prisoners.
      Peel's reforms did not apply to debtors' prisons or local town gaols. Gurney and Fry now went on a tour of British prisons in order to obtain the evidence needed to persuade the government to introduce further legislation. At Aberdeen, the county gaol was housed in an ancient, square tower. In the woman's room, which measured fifteen feet by eight, they found five women and a sick child. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, prisoners had no space to exercise.
      In Glasgow, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, York and Liverpool, Fry found conditions as bad, if not worse, than Newgate. After their tour, Fry and Gurney, published a report of what they found in their book, Prisons in Scotland and the North of England.
      In 1821 Edward Pease and a group of Quaker businessmen approached Joseph Gurney about helping to finance the Stockton & Darlington Railway company. Gurney agreed and became the largest shareholder when he invested £14,000 in the company. When the Stockton & Darlington encountered financial difficulties in 1825, Gurney invested another £40,000 in the company.
      Gurney made several visits to North America and the West Indies where he campaigned against slavery. He also toured Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Germany, where he promoted Quaker views on world peace and the abolition of capital punishment. In 1833 he considered becoming the Whig candidate for the Norwich constituency. However, after long discussions with his friends he decided he could achieve more outside the House of Commons.
      Gurney wrote several books on religion and morality including: Essays on the Evidence, Doctrines and Practical Operation of Christianity (1825), The Moral Character of Jesus Christ (1832), and Religion and the New Testament (1843).

      Joseph Gurney died on 4th January, 1847.

  • Sources 
    1. [S271] Charles Pease, Fragmentgenealogie familie Pease, (22.12.1996; Verkregen via Internet).



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