# Anna Gurney > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Anna_Gurney > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Anna_Gurney.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Gurney > Source revision: 1349918517 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British academic (1795–1857)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Anna Gurney.jpg | alt = | caption = Gurney by [John Linnell](/source/John_Linnell_(painter)) – 15 Feb 1824 | birth_name = | birth_date = 31 December 1795 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death year and age|1857|1795}} | death_place = Keswick, United Kingdom | resting_place = St Martin, Cromer Road, Overstrand, Norfolk, NR27 0NT | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | education = }} '''Anna Gurney''' (1795–1857) was an English scholar, philanthropist, geologist and a member of the [Gurney family of Norfolk](/source/Gurney_family_(Norwich)). ==Background and education== Anna Gurney was born on 31 December 1795, the youngest child of Richard Gurney and his second wife Rachel. The [Gurney family](/source/Gurney_family_(Norwich)) and most of their connections were [Quakers](/source/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](/source/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".{{cite book|last1=Fox|first1=Richard Hingston|title=DR. JOHN FOTHERGILL AND HIS FRIENDS|date=1919|publisher=MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED|location=London|page=271|url=https://archive.org/stream/drjohnfothergill00foxriala#page/270/mode/2up|accessdate=27 September 2016}} Anna's eldest half-sibling was [Hudson Gurney](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Coggeshall), [Essex](/source/Essex). Within a year, Richard and Rachel married.{{cite book|last1=Lane|first1=Richard|title=Anna Gurney: Scholar and Philanthropist|date=2001|publisher=The Larks Press|location=Norfolk|page=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](/source/family_seat) was [Keswick Hall](/source/Keswick_Hall), about three miles from [Norwich](/source/Norwich), [Norfolk](/source/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.{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Gurney, Anna}} At an early age she learnt [Latin](/source/Latin), [Greek](/source/Greek_language), [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew), and [Anglo-Saxon](/source/Old_English_language). ==Adult life== 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](/source/James_Ingram_(academic)), in his ''Saxon Chronicle with Translations'', 1823, preface, p. 12. In 1825, after the death of her mother, she went to reside at Northrepps Cottage, near [Cromer](/source/Cromer), with [Sarah-Maria Buxton](/source/Sarah-Maria_Buxton). 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](/source/George_William_Manby) [apparatus](/source/Manby_Mortar) 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](/source/Amelia_Opie) to create an Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich.[http://spartacus-educational.com/REslaveryW.htm Women's Anti-Slavery Associations], Spartacus, Retrieved 30 July 2015 Gurney visited [Rome](/source/Rome), [Athens](/source/Athens) and [Argos](/source/Argos%2C_Peloponnese), and was contemplating a voyage to the [Baltics](/source/Baltic_region). In 1845 she became an associate of the [British Archaeological Association](/source/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''. In her later life she studied [Danish](/source/Denmark), [Swedish](/source/Sweden), and [Russian literature](/source/Russian_literature). She also owned at least one Old Norse-Icelandic manuscript, an eighteenth-century copy of [Víglundar saga](/source/V%C3%ADglundar_saga), now in the [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/IcelOnline.VglSagaNVD University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Special Collections]. After a short illness she died at the residence of her brother, [Hudson Gurney](/source/Hudson_Gurney), at Keswick, near Norwich, on 6 June 1857, and was buried alongside Sarah-Maria Buxton''The Friend'', by Alan Bray, University of Chicago Press, Dec 31, 2006 in [Overstrand](/source/Overstrand) Church. ==Family== Anna's half-brother [Hudson Gurney](/source/Hudson_Gurney) was an MP for much of 1812–1832, active in abolitionism, and, once out of Parliament, was appointed [High Sheriff of Norfolk](/source/High_Sheriff_of_Norfolk). He was elected fellow of the [Society of Antiquaries](/source/Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London) 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](/source/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society) (elected 15 January 1818), a member of the [British Archæological Association](/source/British_Arch%C3%A6ological_Association) from 1843, vice-president of the [Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society](/source/Norfolk_and_Norwich_Arch%C3%A6ological_Society) and a supporter of the [Norwich Museum](/source/Norwich_Museum) and Literary Institute. Anna's half-sister Agatha ("Gatty") married Samson Hanbury of [Hanbury Manor](/source/Hanbury_Manor); they were connected to [Truman's Brewery](/source/Truman's_Brewery), one of the largest brewers in the world in the nineteenth century. Samson was the brother of Rachel, Anna's mother.{{cite web|last1=Beer|first1=Caroline|title=Richard Hanbury Gurney|url=http://www.heritagecity.org/research-centre/whos-who/richard-hanbury-gurney.htm|website=Norwich HEART Research Centre|accessdate=27 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921081809/http://www.heritagecity.org/research-centre/whos-who/richard-hanbury-gurney.htm|archive-date=21 September 2016|url-status=usurped}} Anna's brother [Richard Hanbury Gurney](/source/Richard_Hanbury_Gurney) (1783–1854, always known as Dick) was a banker and MP. He lived at Thickthorn Hall, in [Hethersett](/source/Hethersett) near Norwich. He was ejected from the Quakers for giving money to a military purpose.{{cite web|title=Richard Hanbury Gurney|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/gurney-richard-hanbury-1783-1854|website=History of Parliament Online|accessdate=27 September 2016}} Rachel's sister Anna Hanbury was the mother of social reformer [Fowell Buxton](/source/Fowell_Buxton). Anna Gurney helped him in his research.{{cite ODNB|last1=Blouet|first1=Olwyn Mary|title=Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4247?docPos=2|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/4247 |accessdate=27 September 2016}} ==References== {{reflist}} ;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Gurney, Anna}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Anna}} Category:1795 births Category:1857 deaths Category:19th-century British philanthropists Category:19th-century English scholars Category:English abolitionists Category:English writers with disabilities Anna Category:People from Cromer Category:People from Keswick, South Norfolk Category:People with paraplegia Category:Polio survivors Category:Scholars and academics with disabilities --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Anna Gurney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Gurney) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Gurney?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.