Author: More, Hannah
Biography:
MORE, Hannah (1745-1833: ODNB)
Born at Stapleton near Bristol, she was the fourth of five daughters of Jacob More, a schoolmaster, and Mary (Grace) More, a farmer's daughter. The sisters were all educated to support themselves as teachers and Hannah, showing exceptional promise, was given instruction in Latin as well as in modern languages at her older sisters' school in Bristol where she too became a teacher. She published her first verse drama, The Search for Happiness, anonymously about 1766, and followed it with Sacred Dramas--all written with a view to providing moral material for her pupils to perform. In 1767 she accepted a proposal of marriage but her fiancé repeatedly put off the wedding until she finally broke the engagement in 1773 and vowed never to marry; he tried to make amends with an annuity that gave her some financial security. About the same time, she began to make annual visits to London where she was welcomed into the literary circles of Johnson and the Bluestockings. She was a prolific and tireless writer and advocate for reforms in education (especially of women), in the Church, and in society at large. She joined Wilberforce in the campaign against the slave trade. After they retired in 1789, she and her sisters led a movement to establish charity schools to teach poor children to read the Bible and catechism. Two of her sisters also joined her in writing the tremendously popular series of anti-Jacobin pamphlets known as Cheap Repository Tracts (1795-8). Her one novel, Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1809) was a best-selling attempt to create Christian content for the circulating libraries. In 1801 the five sisters bought Barley Wood, a house at Wrington, Somerset. More survived the others by more than a decade. In 1828 she moved to Clifton to be cared for by friends, and there spent her final years. She is buried with her sisters at Wrington. (ODNB 14 Apr. 2020)
Other Names:
- Miss Hannah Moore
- Miss Hannah More
- Mrs. H. More
- Mrs. Hannah More