Editing Elizabeth Fry (section)

===Widening prison reform===
Fry wrote in her book ''Prisons in Scotland and the North of England'' that she stayed the night in some of the prisons and invited nobility to come and stay and see for themselves the conditions prisoners lived in. Her kindness helped her gain the friendship of the prisoners and they began to try to improve their conditions for themselves. [[Thomas Fowell Buxton]], Fry's brother-in-law, was elected to Parliament for [[Weymouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Weymouth]] and began to promote her work among his fellow MPs. In 1818 Fry gave evidence to a [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] committee on the conditions prevalent in British prisons, becoming the first woman to present evidence in that house of Parliament.

Fry saw her friend Stephen Grellet and another Quaker, William Allen, off at the docks on their own journey in the cause of prison reform in the autumn of 1818. Having met the Emperor Alexander I in London in 1814, they travelled to visit the prisons of his empire. They had the backing of a letter from the emperor commanding his subjects to cooperate with these English Quakers. They departed for home from Odessa in July 1819. Both men wrote of this mission in their journals, where they also give accounts of their work with Fry.<ref name=grellet/><ref name=allen/>
[[File:Mrs. Fry reading to the prisoners in Newgate John Johnson.jpg|thumbnail|right|Fry reading to inmates in Newgate prison]]
In 1827, Fry visited women's prisons and other places of female confinement in Ireland. She encouraged the women of Belfast to organise their own committee to improve conditions in the women's poorhouse.<ref name=timpson>{{cite book|title=Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry|author1=Thomas Timpson|location=London; New York|publisher=Aylott and Jones; Stanford & Swords|edition=2nd|date=1847|pages=82–99}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Elizabeth Fry & the Foundation of the Ladies Committee of the Poor House |url=https://cliftonbelfast.com/13355-2/ |website=Clifton House|date=13 March 2020 }}</ref>

After her husband went bankrupt in 1828, Fry's brother became her business manager and benefactor. Thanks to him, her work went on and expanded. Later, in 1838, the Friends sent a party to [[France]]. Fry and her husband, as well as [[Lydia Irving]], and abolitionists [[Josiah Forster]] and [[William Allen (English Quaker)|William Allen]] were among the people sent. They were there on other business but despite the language barrier, Fry and Lydia Irving visited French prisons.<ref name=lyd>Amanda Phillips (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58591 "Irving, Lydia (1797–1893)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. Accessed 20 June 2017</ref>