The Angel Paradox: Elizabeth Fry and the Role of Gender
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE ANGEL PARADOX: ELIZABETH FRY AND THE ROLE OF GENDER AND RELIGION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN By Deanna Lynn Matheuszik Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History May, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor James A. Epstein Professor Michael D. Bess Professor Helmut Walser Smith Professor Arleen M. Tuchman Professor Mark L. Schoenfield Copyright © 2013 by Deanna Lynn Matheuszik All Rights Reserved To my parents, Rudie and Carol Matheuszik and in loving memory of Kay Emery and Alice Ann Herzon iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would have been impossible to write this dissertation without the support— intellectual, financial, and emotional—of a great many individuals and institutions. I am deeply indebted to my advisor, Jim Epstein, for his valuable advice over the years. His extraordinarily helpful comments on my draft chapters enriched my work beyond measure. I am also grateful to Michael Bess, Helmut Walser Smith, Arleen Tuchman, and Mark Schoenfield, both for serving on my committee and for sharing their knowledge and insights on scholarship and teaching in a variety of seminars over the years. Thanks particularly to Michael for letting me serve as his research assistant for two years, and for our conversations about teaching, writing, and the importance of gender in World War II. My thanks also go to Katie Crawford, Carolyn Dever, Holly Tucker, and Allison Pingree, whose classes on gender and gender pedagogy were instrumental in developing my interest in this field of study. Richard Blackett, Dennis Dickerson, Matt Ramsey, Ruth Rogaski, as well as Helmut, Katie, and Arleen provided me with valuable feedback on chapters presented in dissertation seminar. Brenda Hummel, Jane Anderson, and Heidi Welch, the history department’s invaluable trio of secretaries, helped me navigate the graduate school experience in ways both big and small. Thank you for your professional assistance, your friendship, and for always taking my baked goods with a smile. iv I am grateful to the staff and archivists at the British Library; the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Library of the Religious Society of Friends, London, particularly Joanna Clark, Julia Hudson, Josef Keith, and Heather Rowland; Norfolk Public Record Office, Norwich, especially Susan Maddock, who allowed me to read uncatalogued Fry accessions; the Pennsylvania Historical Society; the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College; and Wellcome Library, London. The wonderful staff of Vanderbilt’s Interlibrary Loan department—particularly Rachel Adams, David Hughett, Marilyn Pilley, and Jim Toplon—patiently tracked down countless primary sources for me, without which this dissertation would be immeasurably less interesting. My thanks also to Peter Brush, Vanderbilt’s history librarian, who purchased several microfilm sets that were essential to this project. This dissertation was made possible by several Vanderbilt University fellowships and grants, including the Martha Rivers Ingram Fellowship in History, Leland Sage Fellowship, Vanderbilt University Fellowship, and the Vanderbilt Center for Ethics Dissertation Writing Fellowship. The Graduate School and the history department also provided travel grants that enabled me to present my work in progress at a variety of domestic and international conferences. I have been fortunate to spend my years at Vanderbilt with a wonderful group of fellow graduate students, particularly Debi Back, Tim Boyd, Marjorie Brown, Bob Hutton, Natalie Inman, Kurt Johnson, Shawn Mosher, and Mary Sanderson. Your friendship and intellectual fellowship have enriched my personal and professional lives, and I am deeply grateful to know each of you. My special thanks go to my library and Korean drama pal Paula Gajewski, v whose friendship helped me survive the final two years of this project (and the loss of my cat Archie). Our discussions about the graduate school experience and the joys and challenges of writing and editing a dissertation—not to mention the myriad things we talked about that have nothing to do with the life of the mind—continually reinvigorated me. Above all, I want to thank my parents, Rudie and Carol Matheuszik, and my brother Joshua for their unwavering love and support. Without them, I could not have embarked on or finished this extraordinary adventure. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION .................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 British Prisons and Criminal Justice Reforms ......................................... 6 Historiography ...................................................................................... 13 Elizabeth Fry in the Historiography ....................................................... 23 Chapter Synopses ................................................................................. 26 Chapter 1. THE MAKING OF A RELIGIOUS WOMAN ................................................... 29 The Religious Society of Friends ............................................................ 34 The Gurneys of Norwich ........................................................................ 52 Becoming Religious: Fry’s Search for Identity ........................................ 57 2. FROM LADY BOUNTIFUL TO PRISON REFORM ACTIVIST ......................... 94 “Do as thou wouldest [sic] be done unto” ............................................ 101 The Making of an Activist .................................................................... 119 3. GENDER AND RELIGION IN PRISON REFORM ........................................ 156 Crime and Punishment in the British Isles .......................................... 159 The State and the Individual in Public Welfare and Security ............... 170 Lady Prison Visitors ............................................................................ 175 A Continuum of Care: The Ethics of Female Prison Advocacy .............. 187 4. THE BENEVOLENT MRS. FRY: CELEBRITY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE .. 206 Celebrity in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain ..................................... 207 Becoming “Mrs. Fry” ........................................................................... 212 The Power of Celebrity ......................................................................... 223 Criticism of Fry’s Celebrity .................................................................. 237 vii 5. REMEMBERING ELIZABETH FRY ............................................................ 260 Obituaries ........................................................................................... 266 Quaker Memorials ............................................................................... 271 View from the Periphery: Thomas Timpson’s Biography of Fry ............ 283 Remembering Family: Katherine Fry and Rachel Cresswell’s Memoir of Fry ............................................................................................. 285 A Model Christian Woman ................................................................... 297 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 313 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Elizabeth Fry, by George Richmond (1843) ................................................... x 2. Newgate pass ........................................................................................... 218 3. Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, by Samuel Drummand (1818)..................................... 231 4. In Prison and Ye Came Unto Me, by Richard Dighton (1820) ..................... 232 5. Elizabeth Fry, by William Thomas Fry (1821) ........................................... 232 6. Elizabeth Fry, by Charles Robert Leslie, RA (1823) ................................... 233 7. Elizabeth Fry, by Mary M. Pearson, engraved by J. J. Hinchcliff (n.d.) ...... 234 8. An Hour In His Majesty’s Gaol of Newgate title page (1820) ...................... 241 9. “An Hour in Newgate,” Exhibiting Mrs. Fry and her friends (1825) ........... 242 10. Mrs. Fry Reading at Newgate, by Jerry Barrett (c. 1860) ........................... 312 All illustrations appear courtesy of The Library of the Religious Society of Friends, London. ix Figure 1: Elizabeth Fry, by George Richmond (1843). Courtesy of The Library of the Religious Society of Friends, London. x INTRODUCTION In December 1812 Stephen Grellet, a Quaker minister from the United States, arrived in London on a religious mission. One of the main objectives of his visit was to minister to the poor and laboring class, and to that end he held several large meetings for worship for the unemployed and working poor. On New Year’s Eve he preached at Devonshire House, the large Quaker meetinghouse in Bishopsgate, to hundreds of weavers from Spitalsfields.1 Also preaching that day was Elizabeth Fry, the 32-year-old wife of a tea merchant and banker from the neighboring borough, the City of London.2 Although she was a relatively new minister—she first began preaching in late 1809—Fry was already a respected