Gurney, Eliza (1801–1881)

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Gurney, Eliza (1801–1881)

American Quaker minister. Name variations: Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney, Eliza Kirkbride. Born April 6, 1801, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died Nov 8, 1881, in West Hill, New Jersey; dau. of Joseph Kirkbride and Mary (Paul) Kirkbride; m. Joseph John Gurney (banker/minister), Oct 21, 1841 (died 1847).

Traveled US, Canada, England, and Scotland (from 1832) with Hannah Backhouse, an English Quaker minister; was recognized as a minister of the gospel by Quaker Monthly Meeting of Darlington, in England (1841); embarked with husband on traveling ministry to France and Switzerland and ministered to heads of state such as Louis Philippe I, Citizen King of France; after husband's death, continued to work as traveling minister in US and Europe; visited with President Abraham Lincoln (1862).