Author: Brand, Hannah
Biography:
BRAND, Hannah (1754-1821: ODNB)
The youngest child of John and Hannah Brand of Norwich, she was born on 19 Oct. and baptised at St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, on 25 Nov. 1754. Her elder brother was John Brand (q.v.). Her father may have been the Rev. John Brand (c. 1684-1765); he was vicar of Easton, Norwich, and curate at Ameringhall where he conducted the funeral for another daughter, Hannah (1751-53). Her education was good enough to allow her to open a girls’ school in St. Giles’s, Broad Street, Norwich, in the 1780s with her elder sister, Mary. Thomas Beloe (q.v.) claimed that, while the school succeeded for a time, enrolment declined because of her “wayward and eccentric character.” She turned to writing and acting and, on 7 Apr. 1791, her Huniades was performed at John Brunton’s Theatre Royal in Norwich. On 18 Jan. 1792 it opened at the Haymarket in London with Kemble (q.v.) in the title role and Brand as Agmunda but the success it enjoyed in Norwich was not repeated even when Brand shortened the play. She returned to Norwich where in 1796 she issued proposals for publishing Plays and Poems by subscription. In about 1800 she began working as a governess in the family of a former pupil, Ann Hare of Hargham Hall, who had married Thomas Beevor (baronet in 1814) of Maugreen Hall, Norfolk, on 24 Aug. 1795. Ann Beevor left her husband in June 1802, fleeing with Brand and bringing an action for divorce on grounds of cruelty. Thomas Beevor secured a court order for his wife’s return from Doctors’ Commons in 1814. Hannah’s lengthy will, signed on 30 Oct. 1811 when she was staying with a widow, Ann Livie, in the liberty of the Tower of London, designated Ann Beevor, her mother Mary Hare, and Livie as her principal legatees. It also sought to provide against Thomas Beevor having any of his wife’s share. Brand and Ann Beevor moved to France where, at Versailles on 5 Mar. 1821, Brand died. Her will was proved at London on 19 Oct. 1821. (ODNB 22 June 2023; Orlando 22 June 2023; W. Beloe Sexagenarian [1817]; Norfolk Chronicle 13 Mar. 1790; National Archives UK Prob. 11-1648-388; Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser 11 Feb. 1814; Norwich Post 28 Mar. 1821; CCEd 22 June 2023; GM 35 (1765); David Chandler, “ ‘The Conflict’: Hannah Brand and Theatre Politics in the 1790s,” Romanticism on the Net 12 [1998]) SR
Other Names:
- Miss Hannah Brand