Born: 2 February 1745, United Kingdom
Died: 7 September 1833
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Religious writer. Born February 2, 1745, at Stapleton, Gloucestershire. Hannah was the fourth of the five daughters of Jacob More.
Her father had been educated at Norwich Grammar School with a view to taking Orders, but he afterwards obtained the Mastership of the free school of Fishponds, Stapleton, where he married and settled down. He and his wife desired that their daughters should be so brought up as to enable them to make their own living. Hannah was a delicate and precocious child. Before she was four she had learned to read and when she was eight she listened to stories of classical history and anecdotes from Plutarch related to her by her father. He then began to teach her mathematics and Latin. About 1757 her eldest sister, who was not quite twenty-one, set up a boarding school in Bristol. Hannah took lessons from the masters at the school and acquired Latin, Italian and Spanish. She made various translations, among them The Inflexible Captive (1774) which was acted at Exeter and Bath.
In 1762 she published a pastoral drama called The Search After Happiness, When she was about twenty-two, Hannah received an offer of marriage from a Mr. Turner, who lived near Bristol.
Turner afterwards put off the marriage, and the engagement was broken off. In 1773 and 1774 Hannah paid a visit to London with two of her sisters. She had written a letter describing the effect produced upon her mind by Garrick’s Lear. Her correspondent knew Garrick and showed him the letter, and Hannah and Garrick soon became intimate friends. In 1776 she spent some months with Mr. and Mrs. Garrick at the Adelphi and Hampton.
Hannah had been introduced in 1774 to Burke and Reynolds, and at Reynolds’ house first met Dr. Johnson (one of whose favourites she afterwards became). Miss More’s Bas Bleu was circulated in manuscript in 1784. It describes the “blue stocking clubs” then popular among the literary ladies, and of which Hannah More was a member., In 1776 she published an original poem called Sir Eldred of the Bower, Her tragedy Percy, for which Garrick wrote both the prologue and epilogue, was produced at Covent Garden in 1777 and had a run of twenty-one nights. Four thousand copies of the first edition were sold in a fortnight. Under Garrick’s superintendence she wrote another tragedy. The Fatal Falsehood, which was produced in 1779. Following Garrick’s death in 1779, she gradually retired from the gaieties to which he had introduced her, and came to think play-going wrong. She showed her resolution by refusing to attend the performance of Percy in 1787 when it was revived with Mrs. Siddons as the heroine. Hannah More kept up her relations with London society for a time and in 1781 made the acquaintance of Horace Walpole.
He printed a little poem of her’s, Bonners Ghost , at the Strawberry Hill Press in 1781. His many letters to her in later years indicate a genuine liking and admiration for her. In 1782 she published her Sacred Dramas, Hannah More had been much impressed by the Cardiphonia of John Newton and went to hear him preach, after which she borrowed a number of his sermons to read. He soon became a regular correspondent and her adviser on religious topics. In 1787 Hannah also saw much of Wilberforce, who was beginning the agitation against the slave trade, and who was ever afterwards her close friend. In 1788 Hannah More published Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society. It was anonymous and was first attributed to Wilberforce, and was followed by writings in the same vein of religious and moral reflections, which were among the most widely read books of the day. A poem on Slavery published in the same year was also well received. At the end of 1789 one of her sisters came to stay with Hannah. The two sisters made various excursions into the surrounding country, and were shocked at the general distress and ignorance of the people. On finding that thirteen of the neighbouring parishes had not a single resident curate, Hannah More and her sister proposed to set up Sunday schools, and met with a good deal of opposition. They took a small house at Cheddar, hired a school mistress, and at the end of the year had five hundred children in training at Cheddar and the neighbouring parishes. They held evening readings of sermons, prayers, and hymns for the parents, and also promoted friendly societies among the women, had weekly schools in which the girls learned reading and sewing.
With some help from her sisters and friends, Hannah More produced three tracts a month for three years. The venture was supported by committees formed in every part of the country, and the circulation of the tracts was considerable. Miss More’s health suffered from the labour, and her income was lessened. The organization for the circulation of the tracts seems to have led to the foundation of the Religious Tract Society (1799). In 1802 Hannah More moved to Barley Wood which the sisters soon afterwards made their sole residence. Hannah lived very quietly for many years, writing industriously when her health permitted.
In 1809 she published the most popular of her works Coelegs in Search of a Wife, Thirty editions alone were sold in the United States. Between 1813 and 1819 her four sisters died, and during this critical period Hannah wrote a series of tracts in prose and verse. Upon the abolition of slavery in Ceylon she wrote a poetical dialogue called The Feast of Freedom which was set to music by Charles Wesley. Hannah More continued her series of moral and religious treatises, the last of which. Moral Sketches, appeared in 1819. After the death of her last sister, she found the management of her house difficult, so she sold the house and moved to Clifton, near Bristol. Here she was surrounded by so many friends and admirers that she found it necessary to have two public days a week, and passed the rest of the time in retirement. Her memory was fast failing and she died in September, 1833.
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Hannah More, an English author. At the age of sixteen she composed a pastoral drama, The Search after Happiness. Garrick brought out her tragedy of Percy in 1777.
About this time religious impressions induced her to cease her writing for the stage.
Among her next productions were Sacred Dramas (1782), Thoughts on the Manners of the Great (1788) and Religion of the Fashionable World (1791).
At Bath in 1795 she began a monthly periodical of short moral tales which attained an enormous circulation.
In Cheddart she founded several schools, and extended her charitable efforts for the education of the poor into all the surrounding country.
After the appearance of her Strictures on the Modern System of French Education (1799) she was invited to draw up a plan of instruction for the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and produced Hints Toward Forming the Character of a Young Princess (1805). Her most popular work, Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1809), went through ten editions in one year.
She accumulated her writings about £30,000, one-third of which she bequeathed for charitable purposes.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.: .
English authoress and philanthropist
Hannah More, distinguished for her talents and the noble manner in which she exerted them, was the fourth daughter of Jacob More, a schoolmaster. She was born in Stapleton, Gloucestershire, February 2, 1745, and died in Clifton, September 7, 1833. She received her education at a seminary kept by her sisters in Bristol, in the direction of which she afterward became associated.
At the age of sixteen she composed a pastoral drama, The Search After Happiness. In 1774 appeared her tragedy of The Inflexible Captive, and in 1775 two legendary poems. Sir Eldred of the Bower, and The Bleeding Rock. Garrick, the great actor, brought out her tragedy of Percy in 1777.
About 1779, religious impressions induced Miss More to cease writing for the stage. A volume of Sacred Dramas, Floria, a satirical tale, and Religion of the Fashionable World were among her next productions.
She began at Bath, in 1795, a monthly periodical called the Cheap Repository, consisting of short moral tales written by herself, among which was the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. The work attained an enormous circulation.
Miss More removed to Cheddant, founded there several schools, and soon extended her charitable efforts for the education of the poor into all the surrounding country. After the appearance of her Strictures on the
Modern System of Female Education, in 1799, she was invited to draw up a plan of instruction for the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and produced Hints Toward Forming the Character of a Young Princess. Calebs in Search
of a Wife, her most popular work, went through ten editions in one year. It was followed by Practical Piety, Christian Morals, and Modern Sketches.
In 1828 she removed from Barleywood in Gloucestershire, where she had lived for several years with her sisters, to Clifton. She accumulated by her writings about $150,000, one third of which she bequeathed for charitable purposes. In her latter days the severity of her religious views introduced a somewhat unnecessary gloom into her life, though all the powers of her mind were devoted to the solid improvement of society.