festival day with him. He made many tours to the United States, partly for religious services in connection with the Society of Friends, and partly to promote such public objects as the abolition of slavery, the abolition of capital punishment, and the restraint of war. Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Hanover, Prussia, and other parts of Germany he visited in this way. In July 1837 he sailed for America. He extended his journey to Canada and the West India islands, and did not return till August 1840. At Washington he invited the officers of the government and the members of congress to a religious meeting on a Sunday morning. The speaker of the lower house granted him the use of Legislation Hall; the chaplain of the house surrendered his usual morning service, and the room was crowded by the president and members of congress, their ladies, and many other persons. At the close of a powerful address upon Christian duty he was warmly greeted by Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and many other distinguished members.
Gurney's labours through the press were numerous and considerable. In 1824 he published ‘Observations on the distinguishing Views and Practices of the Society of Friends,’ intended chiefly for the younger members of the society. In the same year he published ‘A Letter to a Friend on the Authority of Christianity.’ In 1825, under the title of ‘Essays on the Evidences, Doctrines, and Practical Operation of Christianity,’ he embodied the result of the meditation and research of many years. Southey wrote (4 Jan. 1826): ‘I have gone through your volume with wonder as well as satisfaction. … It would have been a surprising book for one who was bred to the profession of divinity, and pursued the study with ardour during a long life.’ In 1827, after a long residence and inquiry, he published ‘A Report on the State of Ireland, made to the Lord-Lieutenant.’ In 1830 ‘Biblical Notes and Dissertations, chiefly on the Doctrine of the Deity of Christ.’ In reference to this work Dr. Tregelles remarked: ‘Thoroughly as the field of criticism has since changed, the value of that book remains.’ In 1832 ‘An Essay on the Moral Character of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ In the same year he published ‘Terms of Union,’ and ‘A Sketch of the Portable Evidence of Christianity,’ the result of a suggestion made to him by Dr. Chalmers. In 1834 his ‘Essays on the Habitual Exercise of Love to God’ appeared, and the book was reissued at Philadelphia in 1840, and in a French (1839) and a German (1843) translation. On his return from America in 1840 he published his ‘Winter in the West Indies,’ in familiar letters to Henry Clay of Kentucky. In 1843, anonymously at first, ‘The Papal and Hierarchical System compared with the Religion of the New Testament.’ This was reissued with his name, under the title ‘Puseyism traced to its Root, in a View of the Papal and Hierarchical System compared with the Religion of the New Testament.’ Several other works were printed privately, including ‘Letters to Mrs. Opie’ and an ‘Autobiography.’ After his death was published ‘Chalmeriana, or Colloquies with Dr. Chalmers’ (1853), and several little brochures selected from his works.
Gurney declined overtures made to him to enter parliament. He was conspicuous for the largeness of his gifts to philanthropic objects, his generosity being facilitated by simplicity and economy in the ordinary ordering of his life. He was married three times: first in 1817 to Jane Birkbeck, who died in 1822; secondly, in 1827, to Mary Fowler, who died in 1836; and thirdly, in 1841, to Eliza P. Kirkbride, who survived him. He died, after a few days' illness, on 4 Jan. 1847, in his fifty-ninth year.
[Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney, edited by Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, 2 vols. Norwich, 1854; Memoir of, by John Alexander, 1847; Memorial of, by Bernard Barton, 1847; Reminiscences of a Good Man's Life by Mrs. Thomas Geldart, 1853.]
GURNEY, Sir RICHARD (1577–1647), lord mayor of London and royalist, son of Bryan Gurney or Gournard, by Magdalen Hewitt, was born at Croydon on 17 April 1577, and baptised there 8 March 1578 (Collect. Top. et Gen. iv. 91). He was apprenticed to a Mr. Coleby, silkman, of Cheapside, who on his death left him his shop, worth 6,000l. Gurney afterwards travelled in France and Italy, where he ‘laid the foundations for his future traffick.’ His first marriage was an advantageous one, and owing to his wealth and high reputation he was frequently chosen to act as a trustee for charities. He was himself a liberal man, and a benefactor of the Clothworkers' Company and of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, of both of which corporations he was warden. He became an alderman of the city of London, and was sheriff in 1633, when he received a grant of arms, which figure in the cornice round the great hall of Christ's Hospital. He was chosen lord mayor in 1641; the election was made a matter of fierce contest, ‘each party put themselves in battle array, and the puritans were overcome with hisses’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 132). During his year of office Gurney showed himself a zealous royalist. On Charles's re-
