 Hannah
More
1745-1833
English Authoress and Philanthropist
Hannah More was distinguished
for her talents and the noble manner in which
she exerted them. She was famous for her work as
an author, which was kept alive until near the
middle of the nineteenth century. While she was
undoubtedly one of the most well-known and
influential English woman of her day, today the
name of Hannah More is virtually unknown.
Hannah More was born in
Stapleton, Gloucestershire, near Bristol , on
February 2, 1745 . Her father, Jacob More, was a
schoolmaster who made sure his daughters were
well educated. While still in their teens the
three eldest daughters of the More family
founded a girls’ boarding school in Bristol ,
which soon became well known. Hannah received
her education at this seminary, which shaped the
rest of her life.
At the age of sixteen, Hannah
composed a pastoral drama, “The Search After
Happiness”, which was later published and widely
read. In 1774 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, directed her
successful play, “Percy” in 1777.
Around 1779, religious
impressions convinced Hannah to stop writing for
the stage and she increasingly turned to more
distinctly Christian work. With Pastor John
Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, as
her spiritual mentor, she went on to pen such
works as “Sacred Dramas”, a satirical tale, “Florio”,
and “Religion of the Fashionable World”. All of
Hannah’s writings were infused with strong moral
purpose. She wrote a series of popular essays
encouraging Christian leaders to establish moral
laws as well as a series of tracts to counter
the rationalism of her time.
In 1787, dismayed at the
depravity and poverty of mining towns, Hannah
and her sister began establishing Sunday Schools
in many area villages. She moved to Cheddant and
founded several schools in the area and soon
extended her charitable efforts for the
education of the poor into all the surrounding
country. Within ten years she was supporting and
administering over sixteen schools, teaching
destitute children how to read, learn Christian
morals, and acquire life-skills that they would
keep with them forever. Hannah wrote many of the
books used in the schools because she felt that
Christian teaching should be the foundation of
all education.
In 1795 she began a monthly
journal while living in Bath called the “Cheap
Repository”, consisting of short moral tales
that she composed. This periodical attained a
very large circulation and one of her most
popular stories was “Shepherd of Salisbury
Plain”, which went through many editions and was
translated into several languages.
In 1828, Hannah moved from
Barleywood in Gloucestershire, where she had
lived for several years with her sisters, to
Clifton . Her writing brought her much personal
fame and financial success. She was able to save
about $150,000 from her writings, one third of
which she bequeathed for charitable purposes.
Hannah More died in Clifton on September 7, 1833
at the age of eighty-eight. Her writings and
benevolence strongly influenced the public mind
and social character of her day.
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