Joseph John Gurney
Encyclopedia
Joseph John Gurney was a banker in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and an evangelical Minister of the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers), whose views and actions led, ultimately, to a schism among American Quakers.
Biography
Gurney was born at EarlhamEarlham
Earlham can refer to the following places:*Earlham Hall, a historic home in England*Earlham, Iowa*Earlham College, a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana*Earlham Cemetery, a historic cemetery adjacent to Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana...
Hall near Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, (which is now part of the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
) the tenth child of John Gurney
John Gurney
John Gurney may refer to:* Sir John Gurney , English judge* John Gurney , proprietor of Gurney's Bank and father of Joseph John Gurney...
, who was a banker (Gurney's Bank
Gurney's bank
Gurney's bank was a well-respected family-run bank headquartered in Norwich, England. It merged into Barclays Bank in 1896.-History:The bank was founded in 1770 by John and Henry Gurney, sons of John Gurney , who passed the business to Henry's son, Bartlett Gurney, in 1777...
) and a Friend himself. He was always called Joseph John. He was the brother of Elizabeth (Gurney) Fry
Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Fry , née Gurney, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist...
, a reformer, and Louisa Gurney Hoare
Louisa Gurney Hoare
-Early life:Louisa Gurney, born on 25 September 1784, was the seventh of the eleven children of John Gurney of Earlham Hall near Norwich, a Quaker, and of Catherine Bell . Her father inherited ownership of Gurney's Bank in Norwich...
, a writer on education, and also the brother-in-law — through his sister Hannah — of Thomas Fowell Buxton
Thomas Fowell Buxton
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, abolitionist and social reformer....
, an anti-slavery campaigner. He was educated by a private tutor at Oxford, members of non-conformist religious groups being ineligible to matriculate in his day at the English universities.
In 1817 Gurney joined his sister Elizabeth Fry in her attempt to end capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
and institute improvements in prisons. They talked with several Members of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
but had little success.
In 1818 Gurney was a recorded Quaker minister
Recorded Minister
A Recorded Minister was originally a male or female Quaker who was acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry.The practice of recording, in a Monthly Meeting Minute, the acknowledgement that a Friend had a gift of spoken ministry began in the 1730s in London Yearly Meeting, according to...
. (This meant he was noted as a person gifted by God for preaching and teaching, but Quakers then neither explicitly designated individuals to take substantial roles in their worship, nor financially supported its ministers unless their travels in that role would otherwise have been impractical.)
Eventually Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
, the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, took an interest in prison reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
and introduced the Gaols Act 1823
Gaols Act 1823
The Gaols Act 1823 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for improvements in the treatment of prisoners in the United Kingdom.-Overview:...
, which called for paying salaries to wardens (rather than their being supported by the prisoners themselves) and putting female warders in charge of female prisoners. It also prohibited the use of irons or manacles.
Gurney and Fry visited prisons all over Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
to gather evidence of the horrible conditions in them to present to Parliament. They published their findings in a book entitled Prisons in Scotland and the North of England.
Gurney campaigned against slavery during trips to North America and the West Indies from 1837-1840. He promoted the Friends' belief in world peace in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Scotland, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark. He also continued to promote the abolition of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
Gurney also advocated total abstinence
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
from alcohol. He wrote a tract on the subject called Water Is Best.
While he was preaching in the United States he caused some controversy that resulted in a split among Quakers. Gurney was concerned that Friends had so thoroughly accepted the ideas of the inner light and of Christ as the Word of God that they no longer considered the actual text of the Bible and the New Testament Christ important enough. He also stressed the traditional Protestant belief that salvation is through faith in Christ. Those who sided with him were called Gurneyite Quakers. Those who sided with John Wilbur, his opponent, were called Wilburites. (See Quaker history
Quaker history
The Religious Society of Friends is a movement that began in England in the 17th century. Members of this movement are informally known as Quakers, a word that means, "to tremble in the way of the Lord." In its early days it faced opposition and persecution; however, it continued to expand,...
.)
Gurney was an early supporter of Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
in Richmond, Indiana
Richmond, Indiana
Richmond is a city largely within Wayne Township, Wayne County, in east central Indiana, United States, which borders Ohio. The city also includes the Richmond Municipal Airport, which is in Boston Township and separated from the rest of the city...
and the college was named after his family home, Earlham Hall, in honor of his support and encouragement.
Gurney family history and genealogy
Verily AndersonVerily Anderson
Verily Anderson was a British writer, best known for writing the screenplay for No Kidding, based on the book Beware of Children, writing Brownie books and writing the genealogy books about the Gurney, Barclay and Buxton families...
has written two books about the Gurney, Barclay and Buxton families:
- NorthreppsNorthreppsNorthrepps is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is southeast of Cromer, north of Norwich and north of London. The village lies west of the A149 which runs between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. The nearest railway station is at Cromer for the Bittern...
Grandchildren (ISBN 1-898030-67-7)- NorthreppsNorthreppsNorthrepps is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is southeast of Cromer, north of Norwich and north of London. The village lies west of the A149 which runs between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. The nearest railway station is at Cromer for the Bittern...
is a large manor house near Cromer, Norfolk, England that has been occupied by the same family for more than eight generations. This family now has thousands of members; many of whom have made their mark on British society. Notable are Thomas Fowell Buxton, of slave emancipation fame, and Elizabeth Fry, the social reformer. For the Buxton, Barclay and Gurney families Northrepps has been a central focus for many years and Verily Anderson recalls life at the house, providing a close-up account of family life through the eyes of the many children that used the house over generations.
- Northrepps
- Friends and Relations (ISBN 1-898030-84-7)
- This book is a detailed family history of the Gurney family, using information from family records.
Works of Joseph John Gurney
- Essays on the Evidences, Doctrines and Practical Operations of Christianity (1825)
- History, Authority and Use of the Sabbath, (1831)
- The Moral Character of Jesus Christ (1832)
- A Winter in the West Indies (1840)
- Religion and the New Testament (1843)