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Caroline Neave

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Caroline Neave
Born
Caroline Hannah Neave

(1781-03-23)23 March 1781
Died7 December 1863(1863-12-07) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhilanthropist

Caroline Hannah Neave (23 March 1781 — 7 December 1863) was a British philanthropist and penal reformer.

Early life

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Neave was born in 1781 to Richard and Frances Neave.[1]

Career

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In 1822, she founded and ran Tothill Fields Asylum, a shelter for female former prisoners in Westminster after conversation with Elizabeth Fry, during which Fry lamented "Often have I known the career of a promising young woman, charged with a first offence, to end in a condemned cell!".[2][3] Initially, the asylum hosted four inmates, increasing to nine by 1824.[3] Neave joined Fry's British Ladies' Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners after members of the group were impressed by the asylum.[4] In 1825, Neave headed a subcommittee to establish and run Royal Manor Hall Asylum in Chelsea, an asylum for 'vicious female children' such as shoplifters that would later be taken over by Neave's Royal Female Philanthropic Society.[5] The asylum used solitary confinement instead of corporal punishment, and prepared the children for marriage or domestic service.[4]

Queen Victoria contributed fifty pounds to the running of Royal Manor Hall Asylum.[6] By 1848, the Royal Manor Hall Asylum had hosted more than six hundred inmate.[3][7]

In 1853, Neave gave evidence to the Select Committee on Criminal and Destitute Children.[8]

Through her career, she also worked in prisons, refuges and convict-ships.[4]

References

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  1. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. F. Jefferies. 1864. pp. 133–.
  2. ^ Isabel McKenzie (1935). Social activities of the English Friends in the first half of the nineteenth century. Priv. print. for the author.
  3. ^ a b c Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1848). Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry: With Extracts from Her Journal and Letters. C. Gilpin, J. Hatchard. pp. 449–.
  4. ^ a b c "Neave, Caroline Hannah (1781–1863), philanthropist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61286. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1893). Woman's Mission: A Series of Congress Papers on the Philanthropic Work of Women, by Eminent Writers. S. Low, Marston, limited. ISBN 9780722216576.
  6. ^ Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1847). Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry: With Extracts from Her Journal and Letters. C. Gilpin, J. Hatchard. pp. 353.
  7. ^ Elizabeth Fry, Or, The Christian Philanthropist. American Sunday-School Union. 1851. pp. 222–.
  8. ^ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Criminal and Destitute Children (1853). Report from the Select Committee on Criminal and Destitute Children: Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix ...