Margaret Sewell
[5] John Wright (1794–1871) of Dudwick House was a Quaker and pioneer in the reformatory movement that sought to reduce the harshness of punishments for adolescent offenders.
He was involved with the Society for Aiding Discharged Prisoners and the Norwich City Mission, and was elected to the first Norfolk County Council.
[17] Sewell married Sarah Woods, Margaret's mother, in 1849; in the same year, Isaac left the bank, and went into business on his own account.
[20] The Women's University Settlement (WUS) in Southwark was founded in 1887; in 1889 Margaret Sewell and Edith Argles began setting up social work training there.
[21] The WUS operated a policy of giving free accommodation to female college students in London, in exchange for voluntary social work.
When she resigned the post in 1889, there was a hiatus, during which Sewell held the lease of 44 Nelson Square, the Settlement's base just off the Blackfriars Road, Southwark, and a replacement was sought.
[25] Meriel Talbot took on some house management duties on behalf of Octavia Hill, which Gruner had on her onerous list of jobs.
[31] The WUS under Margaret Sewell was credited with the innovation: in 1893 "the settlement arranged for the first 'Invalid Centre,' a modest attempt with a nucleus of six to ten children".
[37] The committee involved the Charity Organisation Society (COS) and National Union of Women Workers (NUWW), with Louise Creighton on it, as well as the WUS, who were represented by Eleanor Powell (treasurer) and Clara Collet.
[38] Sewell herself lectured for COS and NUWW voluntary workers: a course of 1896 covered "Economics, Poor Law, Local Government, Education, Sanitation, Principles of Organisation and Relief, Thrift".
[43][44] Susan Pedersen breaks down what she gained from the WUS social work milieu, from Sewell and others, as regard for practical training, and a view of civic action.
Sewell sat on the replacement Lectures Committee, with Octavia Hill, Bernard Bosanquet, Eleanor Powell and others, working to ensure continuity.
"[51]A report of her paper to the 1892 Conference of Women at Bristol summed it up as "while the greatest skill and knowledge is required for work amongst the poor, no one seems, as a rule, to regard any qualification but the desire a necessary one.
[53] These views were consistent with, and built up in the direction of instruction, the orthodoxy of the Charity Organisation Society, of which Sewell was secretary when in 1891 she was recruited as Warden of the WUS.
Around that time, with Henry Valpy Toynbee and Herbert Louis Woollcombe, Sewell was an evident London leader in the practical application of COS doctrine.
[38][54][55] Jane Addams wrote to Mary Rozet Smith in 1896 describing a rather chilly attitude to "the poor" at a Settlement meeting, held in the nearby Red Cross Hall, Whitecross Street.
