Rosamond Davenport Hill

Teaching career and prison reform interests

In 1841, the family moved to France, followed by Belgium in 1844, and eventually Switzerland and Italy. The family moved back to England, settling in Bristol, in 1851 due to Matthew Davenport Hill becoming a bankruptcy commissioner. Davenport Hill began working for Mary Carpenter. She worked at Carpenter's St. James ragged school and taught the children arithmetic and home economics. She also worked for her father, who had become active in educational and criminal law reform. She visited Ireland in 1856, where she visited prisons with her father. She wrote a book about her experience titled "A Lady's Visit to the Irish Convict Prisons". In 1858, the two went to Spain, France, and Germany to visit prisons. Davenport Hill focused exclusively about prison reform until the mid-1870s. She co-authored a book with her father, in 1860, titled "Our Exemplars, Rich and Poor."