Samuel Gurney (1816 - 1882)

Born 3 Feb 1816 in Upton, Essex, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 4 Apr 1882 at age 66 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Samuel was a Friend (Quaker)

Samuel was the son of Samuel Gurney and Elizabeth Sheppard. He was born at Upton, Essex on 3 February 1816.^[1][2]

In 1836 Samuel married Ellen Reynolds, daughter of William Foster Reynolds of Carshalton, Surrey. For some years they lived at Carshalton.^[3]

Samuel became a partner in his father's banking business. Its collapse in 1866 does not seem to have discredited him excessively: he remained on the board of other companies.^[4]

Samuel was very involved in public affairs. Among other activities he was:^[3]

• Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Penrhyn, Cornwall from 1857-1868, serving as an Independent^[4]
• an active member of the British and Foreign School Society
• involved in the anti-slavery movement and was President of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society for eighteen years
• President of the Aborigines' Protection Society
• a member of the House committee of the London Hospital for forty years, and was Vice-President of the Committee in his last years
• one of the founders of the Poplar Hospital for Accidents, Middlesex, and he served as its President
• Vice-President of the Philanthropic Society
• a founding member of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, serving on its Executive Committee
• a founder, with his father, of the Hospital for Cutaneous Diseases
• Treasurer of the Royal Society for the P{protection of Cruelty to Animals
• Chairman of the Metropolitan Fountain Drinking and Cattle Trough Association
• Sheriff of Surrey from 1857 to 1868
• Treasurer and then Vice-President of the Peace Society
• President of the National Association for the Relief of British Miners^[5]
• a Fellow of the Linnaean Society and the Royal Geographic Society^[4]
• a member of committees for penal reform^[4]

The 1851 census records Samuel at Upton, Essex, age 35, money dealer, born West Ham, Essex. Wife Ellen, 37, born Clapham, Surrey.^[6]

Samuel died of diabetes on 4 April 1882 at Tunbridge Wells, Kent.^[4] An obituary in the Quaker publication the Annual Monitor says he he was a Quaker elder.^[3] His death was registered at Tunbridge Wells inn the second quarter of 1882.^[7] Probate was granted on his estate on 14 June 1882, with his death date listed as 4 April that year.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ The National Archives, ref. RG6/421, LONDON AND MIDDLESEX: Monthly Meeting of Ratcliff and Barking: Births, FindMyPast
2. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQ11-RXW : 11 December 2014), Samuel Gurney in entry for Samuel Gurney, 03 Feb 1816, Birth; citing p. 31, Barking, Essex, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Annual Monitor - Deaths, FindMyPast and linked images (pp. 44-56)
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Richard Davenport-Hines for 'Gurney, Samuel (1816–1882)", print and online 2004, revised online 2008
5. ↑ Wikipedia: Samuel Gurney (MP)
6. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGVC-7B6 : 9 November 2019), Samuel Gurney Junr, West Ham, Essex, England; citing West Ham, Essex, England, p. 3, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey
7. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2J8D-J8V : 31 December 2014), Samuel Gurney, 1882; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, General Register Office, Southport, England
8. ↑ England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858-2019, FindMyPast