The Quaker author, economist, and philanthropist Priscilla Bell Wakefield (1751–1832) was a polymath who is remembered today for her role in promoting savings banks for ordinary people. She referred to the institutions she championed as “frugality banks,” and she urged that women and children be permitted to invest their small savings in them. As a philanthropist, in 1791 Wakefield founded a charity center—the Lying-In Charity for Women—in which poor pregnant women could give birth in relative safety. The recipients of the charity also received basic supplies for their babies, including clothing.