Anna Gurney | |
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 Gurney by John Linnell – 15 Feb 1824 | |
| Born | 31 December 1795 |
| Died | 1857 (aged 61–62) Keswick, United Kingdom |
| Resting place | St Martin, Cromer Road, Overstrand, Norfolk, NR27 0NT |
Anna Gurney (1795–1857) was an English scholar, philanthropist, geologist and a member of the Gurney family of Norfolk.
Anna Gurney was born on 31 December 1795, the youngest child of Richard Gurney and his second wife Rachel. The Gurney family and most of their connections were Quakers (members of the Society of Friends), and many were involved with banking. Richard had married his first wife Agatha, only surviving child of the banker David Barclay of Youngsbury, who brought his daughters up in "what may be termed the best aristocratic Quaker life of the middle of the eighteenth century". [1] Anna's eldest half-sibling was Hudson Gurney, twenty years her senior; as adults, they shared scholarly interests. Agatha bore another child, a daughter named after her, and died a few days later. It was felt by the Barclay grandparents that Richard was too much a typical country squire and too little a serious religious man, so they asked a sixteen-year-old niece to live with the widower and "instil some sterner Quaker spirit" into the children. Rachel was the second daughter of Osgood Hanbury of Holfield Grange, near Coggeshall, Essex. Within a year, Richard and Rachel married. [2]
Anna had two full siblings, Richard ("Dick"), born 1783, and Elizabeth, born 1784. There was then a gap of over a decade before Anna's birth in 1795; she was the youngest child. The family seat was Keswick Hall, about three miles from Norwich, Norfolk. Richard Gurney died 16 July 1811, when Anna was 15.
As a child, (10 months old) Gurney contracted poliomyelitis (polio), which paralysed her lower limbs, meaning from a young age Gurney was a wheelchair user. Throughout Gurney's adult life, Anna devoted a lot of resources and time to many different causes. This included abolition work, education for children, geology which mainly focused her geological research on local portions of the Cromer Forest Bed Formation, and purchasing a Manby Mortar, an apparatus used to fire a line to a ship in peril for the town of Sheringham. [3]
At an early age she learnt Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon.
In 1819 she brought out anonymously, in a limited impression for private circulation, A Literal Translation of the Saxon Chronicle. By a Lady in the Country. This work, which went to a second edition, was commended by the highly respected academic James Ingram, in his Saxon Chronicle with Translations, 1823, preface, p. 12. [3]
In 1825, after the death of her mother, she went to reside at Northrepps Cottage, near Cromer, with Sarah-Maria Buxton. The two most likely had a romantic relationship, as they referred to each other as their "faithful and beloved partner," and others referred to them as "cottage ladies" (a common term for cohabitating lesbians at the time). [4] Buxton died in 1839, and Gurney continued to inhabit the cottage for the remainder of her life. While living there she procured at her own expense one of Manby's apparatus for saving the lives of seamen wrecked on dangerous coasts, and in cases of urgency she caused herself to be carried down to the beach, and directed the operations from her chair. Gurney worked with Amelia Opie to create an Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich. [5]
Gurney visited Rome, Athens and Argos, and was contemplating a voyage to the Baltics. In 1845 she became an associate of the British Archaeological Association, being the first lady member who joined the association. In the Archæologia, xxxii. 64–8, is a communication from her on The Discovery of a Gold Ornament near Mundesley in Norfolk, and in xxxiv. 440–2 is a paper On the Lost City of Vineta, a submerged Phœnician city. [3]
In her later life she studied Danish, Swedish, and Russian literature. She also owned at least one Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript, an eighteenth-century copy of Víglundar saga, now in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Special Collections. After a short illness she died at the residence of her brother, Hudson Gurney, at Keswick, near Norwich, on 6 June 1857, and was buried alongside Sarah-Maria Buxton [6] in Overstrand Church. [3]
Anna's half-brother Hudson Gurney was an MP for much of 1812–1832, active in abolitionism, and, once out of Parliament, was appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk. He was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 12 March 1818, and was vice-president from 1822 to 1846. He contributed to the society many hundreds of pounds for the publication of Anglo-Saxon works. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society (elected 15 January 1818), a member of the British Archæological Association from 1843, vice-president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society and a supporter of the Norwich Museum and Literary Institute.
Anna's half-sister Agatha ("Gatty") married Samson Hanbury of Hanbury Manor; they were connected to Truman's Brewery, one of the largest brewers in the world in the nineteenth century. Samson was the brother of Rachel, Anna's mother. [7]
Anna's brother Richard Hanbury Gurney (1783–1854, always known as Dick) was a banker and MP. He lived at Thickthorn Hall, in Hethersett near Norwich. He was ejected from the Quakers for giving money to a military purpose. [8]
Rachel's sister Anna Hanbury was the mother of social reformer Fowell Buxton. Anna Gurney helped him in his research. [9]
Anna Sewell was an English novelist who wrote the 1877 novel Black Beauty, her only published work. It is considered one of the top ten best-selling novels for children, although the author intended it for adults. Sewell died only five months after the publication of Black Beauty, but long enough to see her only novel become a success.
Elizabeth Fry, sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the treatment of prisoners, especially female inmates, and as such has been called the "Angel of Prisons". She was instrumental in the 1823 Gaols Act which mandated sex-segregation of prisons and female warders for female inmates to protect them from sexual exploitation. Fry kept extensive diaries, in which she wrote explicitly of the need to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual exploitation.
Amelia Opie was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic period up to 1828. A Whig supporter and Bluestocking, Opie was also a leading abolitionist in Norwich, England. Hers was the first of 187,000 names presented to the British Parliament on a petition from women to stop slavery.
Joseph Pease was a British proponent and supporter of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, one of first public railway systems in the world, and was the first Quaker permitted to take his seat in Parliament.
Joseph John Gurney was a banker in Norwich, England and a member of the Gurney family of that city. He became an evangelical minister of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), whose views and actions led, ultimately, to a schism among American Quakers.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton, was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, abolitionist and social reformer. He married Hannah Gurney, whose sister became Elizabeth Fry, and became a great friend of her father Joseph Gurney and the extended Gurney family.
William Forster was a preacher, Quaker elder and a fervent abolitionist. He was an early member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839. It was William and Stephen Grellet who introduced Elizabeth Fry to her life's work with prisons, but it was William's brother, Josiah, who accompanied Fry on her tour and inspection of prisons in France.
The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other important county meetings. Most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now largely ceremonial. There was a single high sheriff serving the two counties of Norfolk and Suffolk until 1576.
Rev. Barclay Fowell Buxton was an English evangelical Christian missionary in Japan.
Samuel Gurney was an English banker and philanthropist from the Gurney family of Norwich. He should not be confused with his second son, Samuel (1816–1882), also described as banker and philanthropist, and a Member of Parliament.
Cromer and District Hospital opened in 1932 in the suburb of Suffield Park in the town of Cromer within the English county of Norfolk. The hospital is run by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and provides an important range of acute consultant and nurse-led services to the residents of the district of North Norfolk.
Samuel Hoare Jr was a wealthy British Quaker banker and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, then to the north of London in the county of Middlesex. From 1790, he lived at Heath House on Hampstead Heath. He was one of the twelve founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Verily Anderson was a British author, best known for writing the screenplay of the 1960 film No Kidding, based on her 1958 book Beware of Children, for writing Brownie books and writing genealogical books about the Gurney, Barclay and Buxton families.
Earlham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. It is located just to the west of the city of Norwich, on Earlham Road, on the outskirts of the village of Earlham. For generations it was the home of the Gurney family. The Gurneys were known as bankers and social activists; prison reformer Elizabeth Fry grew up at Earlham Hall. When the University of East Anglia was founded in 1963, the building became its administrative centre, and it now serves as the law school.
Hudson Gurney was an English antiquary and verse-writer, also known as a politician. He was a member of the Gurney family.
Louisa Gurney Hoare was an English diarist and writer on education, and a member of the Gurney family. She was concerned particularly with standards of education.
The Gurneys were an influential family of English Quakers, who had a major part in the development of Norwich, England. They established Gurney's Bank in 1770, which merged into Barclays Bank in 1896. They established successful breweries. A number of family members were abolitionists. Members of the family still live in the United Kingdom.
Hoveton Hall in the parish of Hoveton in Norfolk is a Regency-style country house made of gault brick with a slate roof. It was built between 1809 and 1812, on or near the site of the previous ancient manor house of the same name, by Mrs Christabell Burroughes (1764-1843), daughter and heiress of Henry Negus (1734-1807) of Hoveton Hall, an attorney, and wife of James Burkin Burroughes (1760-1803) of Burlingham Hall, Norfolk. The architect was Humphry Repton. It is a well-preserved historic house of significance on the English Heritage Register. The Negus family had been seated at Hoveton Hall for several generations. The surrounding estate today consists of 120 acres of gardens and parkland and 450 acres of arable land as well as picturesque woodland. The gardens are open to the public during part of the year and there are facilities available for accommodation and special events including weddings.
Priscilla Buxton was a British abolitionist. She was co-secretary of the London Female Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 a petition of 187,000 women's signatures were presented to parliament to end slavery. The first two names were Amelia Opie and Priscilla Buxton.
Sarah-Maria Buxton was a social reformer and abolitionist, long-term companion of Anna Gurney, scholar and philanthropist.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Gurney, Anna". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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