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The Prisoner’s Friend Thomas Wright never earned more than a foreman’s wage, but he helped hundreds of prisoners back into society.
1838-1875
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Music: Cipriani Potter

© Steve Fareham, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

A view across Manchester from the Lowry Hotel, with the tower of Manchester (formerly ‘Strangeways’) Prison soberingly evident.

The Prisoner’s Friend
Thomas Wright (1789-1875) was an ordinary Manchester workman who dedicated his life to helping former prisoners back into society, all on his own time and using his own money. Yet he never earned much over £150 a year, roughly £15,000 today.

WHEN Thomas Wright learnt that a fellow employee at the Manchester foundry where he worked was to be sacked just because he was an ex-convict, he offered his boss £20 as a guarantee of the man’s good behaviour. A reprieve was granted, but by the time Wright reached the man’s lodgings, bursting with the good news, the poor fellow had packed up and fled town.

The incident continued to trouble him, and around 1838 Wright began touring Manchester’s prisons in his few free hours (he worked from 5am to 6pm six days a week) using his own money and acting as a character reference to secure release and employment for prisoners.

Thomas’s work was soon recognised, but he declined a position as Inspector of Prisons at £800 a year, believing he worked better as a private citizen. In 1852, he did accept an annuity equivalent to his foreman’s wages,* and on that modest salary devoted all his time to helping hundreds of prisoners begin new lives, while bringing up his own family of nineteen children.

That is, £3 10s per week, or £157 10s per annum. The pound in 1852 was roughly equal to £100 today.

Précis

Thomas Wright was an ordinary Manchester factory foreman who helped prisoners back into work, using his own money to compensate employers for any misbehaviour and giving character references. Such was his success that he was offered a well-paid Government post, but chose to continue living off his modest wages, while rescuing hundreds more men from prejudice and destitution. (58 / 60 words)

Source

Based on Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal No. 280 (1849) p. 296f., and ‘Household Words’ Vol. 4, No. 102 (March 6th, 1852), edited by Charles Dickens.

Suggested Music

Symphony No. 8 in E flat (1828)

4. Allegro vivace

Cipriani Potter (1792-1871)

Performed by the Milton Keynes City Orchestra, conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton.

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