Hannah More

The daughter of a Bristol schoolmaster, Hannah More opened a boarding school in Bristol in 1757, where one of her students was Mary Robinson. She befriended John Langhorne, and later David Garrick, through whom she met many London writers, becoming a well-known author herself. At the suggestion of Bishop Porteus she published Village Politics (1793), the first of a series of tracts written to secure the loyalty of the poor during the French Revolution. More's devotional and moral writings had a wide sale, and after her death her letters were frequently republished.

TEXT RECORDS:

1782Sensibility: a Poetical Epistle to the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen.
1796 ca.Parley, the Porter. An Allegory.

PUBLICATIONS:

A search after happiness: a pastoral drama by a young lady. 1773.
The inflexible captive: a tragedy. 1774.
Sir Eldred of the bower and the Bleeding rock: two legendary tales. 1776.
Esays on various subjects, principally designed for young ladies. 1777.
Ode to Dragon, Mr Garrick's house-dog at Hampton. 1777.
Percy: a tragedy. 1778.
The fatal falsehood: a tragedy. 1779.
Sacred dramas, chiefly intended for young persons; to which is added Sensibility: a poem. 1782.
Florio, a tale for fine gentlemen and fine ladies; and the Bas bleu, or conversation: two poems. 1786.
Slavery: a poem. 1788.
Thoughts on the importance of the manners of the great to general society. 1788.
Bishop Bonner's ghost. 1789.
An estimate of the religion of the fashionable world. 1791.
Remarks on the speech of M. Dupont, made in the National Convention of France, on the subjects of religion and education. 1793.
Village politics, by Will Chip. 1793.
Questions and answers for the Mendip and Sunday schools. 1795.
Cheap repository tracts. 1795-8.
Strictures on the modern system of female education. 2 vols, 1799.
Works. 8 vols, 1801.
Hints towards forming the character of a young princess. 2 vols 1805.
Coelebs in search of a wife. 2 vols 1808.
Practical piety. 2 vols 1811.
Christian morals. 2 vols 1813.
An essay on the character and practical writings of St. Paul. 2 vols 1815.
Poems. 1816, 1829.
Stories for the middle ranks of society, and tales for the common people. 2 vols 1818.
Moral sketches of prevailing opinions and manners. 1819.
The twelfth of August: or the feast of freedom. 1819.
Works. 19 vols, 1818-19.
Bible rhymes on the names of all the books of the old and new testaments. 1821.
The spirit of prayer, selected from published volumes. 1825.
Works. 6 vols, 1833-4.
Memoirs, ed. W. Roberts. 4 vols, 1834.
Works. 8 vols, 1853.
Letters to Zachary Macaulay, containing notices of Lord Macaulay's youth. Ed A. Roberts 1860.
Selected letters, ed. Ed R. B. Johnson. 1925.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

privately educated

woman writer
schoolmaster
poet
dramatist
essayist
novelist

Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Frances Brooke
Edmund Burke
Richard Owen Cambridge
Elizabeth Carter
Joseph Cottle
Thomas De Quincey
David Garrick
John Hoole
Samuel Johnson
Rev. John Langhorne
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Elizabeth Montagu
David Murray
Bp. Thomas Percy
Rev. Richard Polwhele
Anna Maria Porter
Bp. Beilby Porteus
Joshua Reynolds
Samuel Richardson
Mary Robinson
Elizabeth Smith
Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna
Horace Walpole
Rev. Joseph Warton
Ann Yearsley

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

"Letters by Miss More and Mrs. Cowley" Gentleman's Magazine 49 (August 1779) 407-08; "Memoirs of Miss Hannah More" New Lady's Magazine 1 (October 1786) 462-63 [portrait]; Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); "Memoirs of Miss Hannah More" New London Magazine 5 (December 1789) 567; Lounger's Common-Place Book (1792; 1796) 2:48-49; "Miss Hannah More" Monthly Mirror 2 (July 1796) 134-35; "Mrs. Hannah More" Ladies' Monthly Museum 1 (July 1798) 1-6 [portrait]; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Hannah More" Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 4 (20 April 1799) 54-55 [from Rivers]; "Memoirs of Hannah More" Monthly Magazine and American Review [New York] 3 (December 1800) 465-69; T. Bere, The Controversy between Mrs Hannah More and the Curate of Blagdon (1801); A. Elton, A Letter to the Rev Thomas Bere, occasioned by his Attack on Mrs Hannah More (1801); "Miss Hannah More" Lady's Monitor [New York] 1 (20, 27 February 1802) 210-11, 218-19; "Memoirs of Miss Hannah More" New England Quarterly Magazine [Boston] (April-June 1802) 86-91; "Hannah More" Weekly Visitor or Ladies' Miscellany [New York] 2 (11 February 1804) 131-32; "Remarks on the Writings of Mrs. H. More" Gentleman's Magazine 83 (August 1813) 108-10; "Mrs. Hannah More" Ladies' Monthly Museum S3 2 (August 1815) 61-63 [portrait]; "Mrs. Hannah More" La Belle Assemblee NS 12 (October 1815) 147-49 [portrait]; Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "Hannah More" British Lady's Magazine NS 1 (July 1817) 49-52 [portrait]; "Biograhical Sktech of Hannah More" Philadelphia Magazine 1 (January-February 1818) 3-4, 17-18; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Alexander Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses (1827); "Works of Hannah More" United States Review and Literary Gazette [Boston] 2 (July 1827) 272-78; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 103 (October 1833) 272-75; obituary in American Quarterly Observer [Boston[ 2 (January 1834) 192-93; W. Roberts, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More (1834); Richard Polwhele, in Reminiscences (1836); H. Thompson, Life of Hannah More (1838); Thomas De Quincey, "Literary Reminiscences" (1840; in Works 1889-90); Anne Katherine Elwood, Memoirs of Literary Ladies of England (1843); Joseph Cottle, in Reminiscences (1847); Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record (1855); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); A. Roberts, ed., Mendip Annals, or a Narrative of the Charitable Labours of Hannah More and Martha More (1859); H. C. Knight, Hannah More: or Life in Hall and Cottage (1862); C. M. Yonge, Hannah More (1888); "Marion Harland" (M. V. Hawes), Hannah More (1900); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Annette M. B. Meakin, Hannah More: a Biographical Study (1911); E. M. Forster, "Mrs Hannah More" Nation [London] (2 January 1926); Luther Weeks Courtney, Hannah More's Interest in Education and Government (1929); Philip Child, "Portrait of a Woman of Affairs — Old Style" University of Toronto Quarterly 3 (1933) 87-102; M. A. Hopkins, Hannah More and her Circle (1946); M. G. Jones, Hannah More (1952); Renwick, OHEL (1963); M. G. Jones, Hannah More (1968); Todd, Dictionary of ... Women Writers 1660-1800 (1987); Lonsdale, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (1989); Feldman, British Women Poets (1997).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Hannah More:

1.	1773  John Langhorne, 1773; European Magazine 17 (February 1790) 104.
2.	1773  W. H., "To Miss —; on her elegant Poem, entitled A Search after Happiness" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (27 May 1773).
3.	1773  W. H., "Extempore. On Miss More of Bristol" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (23 June 1773).
4.	1774  Anonymous, "To the celebrated Bristol Poetess, Miss Hannah More, Author of The Search after Happiness, and the Inflexible Captive" St. James's Chronicle (28 April 1774).
5.	1774  Chiron, "To H. M. on her appearing in the character of a Shepherdess of the Alps, at a late Masquerade" St. James's Chronicle (21 July 1774).
6.	1776  M. R., "Upon reading Sir Eldred of the Bower, after Lord Chesterfield's Letters" Public Advertiser (3 April 1776).
7.	1777  Anonymous, "Ode, by Dragon, the House-Dog at Hampton, in answer to his new Correspondent" Morning Chronicle (10 May 1777).
8.	1777  Anonymous, "To the Author of the Ode to Dragon, the House Dog at Hampton" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (19 May 1777).
9.	1777  Anonymous, "To Miss More, on her having been lampooned in several scurrilous Epigrams" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (4 December 1777).
10.	1777  Anonymous, "An Apology to Miss H—h M—e, from the Author of the Ode by Dragon, the House-Dog at Hampton" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (21 May 1777).
11.	1777  W. H., "An Impromptu, on seeing the Tragedy of Percy" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (15 December 1777).
12.	1777  T. S., "Extempore. To Miss Hannah More, on the merited Success of her much-admired Tragedy of Percy" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (17 December 1777).
13.	1778  Samuel Johnson, 1778; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 3:333-34.
14.	1778  Numps, "To the Editor" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (16 January 1778).
15.	1778  Anonymous, "Miss Hannah M—" General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer (20 April 1778).
16.	1778  Nesbit, "To the First of her Sex" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (31 January 1778).
17.	1778  William Tasker, "Stanzas, addressed to the Author of the Lines affecting to ridicule the Poetical Productions of Miss Hannah More" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (13 February 1778).
18.	1778  Nesbit, "In Answer to the impartial Champion of a Gentle-woman" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (22 February 1778).
19.	1778  Philo-Musa, "On Miss H— M—'s Tragedy, translated from the French of M. de. Belloy" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (2 March 1778).
20.	1779  T. B****s, "To Miss Hannah Moore, on seeing her new Tragedy of The Fatal Falshood" General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer (21 May 1779).
21.	1779  Anonymous, "An humble Invocation to Miss Hannah More" Gentleman's Magazine 49 (July 1779) 367.
22.	1781  Robert Lowth, "To Hannah More, from the Latin of Bishop Lowth, 1781" Gentleman's Magazine 100 (Supplement to Part II, 1830) 633.
23.	1783  Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Montagu, 22 September 1783; Letters to Mrs. Montagu, ed. Montagu Pennington (1817) 3:202-03.
24.	1784  James Beattie to William Forbes, 31 July 1784; Forbes, Life and Writings of James Beattie (1806) 2:146-47.
25.	1785  Ann Yearsley, "To Stella, on a Visit to Mrs. Montague" Bath Chronicle (24 February 1785).
26.	1786  Anonymous, "Hannah More and the Bas Bleu" Bath Chronicle (6 July 1786).
27.	1789  John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:250n.
28.	1791  Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger, in The Female Geniad; a Poem ... written at the Age of Thirteen (1791) 18.
29.	1791  A Young Lady, "On Miss Hannah More" Bath Chronicle (3 March 1791).
30.	1792  John Bennet, in "Letters to a young Lady" American Museum [Philadelphia] 11 (January 1792) 10.
31.	1794  Richard Polwhele, "Lines, said to have been addressed to Miss Hannah More, by Mr. Polwhele" Saint James's Chronicle (8 April 1794).
32.	1795  Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter, 1795; Reginald Blunt, Mrs. Montagu, 1762-1800 (1923) 2:371.
33.	1799  Anonymous, "To Peter Pindar, on reading his intended satyrical Lines addressed to Miss Hannah More" The True Briton (29 October 1799).
34.	1801  Calliope, "Epigrammata. On the late Marriage of Dr. Crossman and Mrs. Hannah More" The Oracle (7 September 1801).
35.	1806  William Forbes, in Life and Writings of James Beattie (1806) 2:146-47n.
36.	1809  Melesina Chenevix Trench to Mary Leadbeater, September 1809; Leadbeater Papers (1862) 2:171.
37.	1809  Anonymous, "To the unknown Author of Coelebs" Gentleman's Magazine 79 (August 1809) 752.
38.	1809  Sydney Smith, Review of More, Coelebs in Search of a Wife; Edinburgh Review 14 (April 1809) 145-51.
39.	1813  Anonymous, "Anne and Hannah" Morning Chronicle (1 June 1813).
40.	1814  Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Cottle, 27 May 1814; in Cottle, Reminiscences (1847) 283-84.
41.	1814  Crito, "Female Writers: Hannah More" The Intellectual Regale or Ladies' Tea Tray [Philadelphia] 1 (3 December 1814) 40-41.
42.	1815  William Henry Ireland, in Scribbleomania (1815) 247-50 & n.
43.	1819  Leigh Hunt, in Review of More, Moral Sketches; The Examiner (19 December 1819) 813.
44.	1820  T., in "On the Female Literature of the present Age" New Monthly Magazine 13 (March 1820) 274.
45.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 83 &n.
46.	1827  Anonymous, in "The Crowning of the Living British Poetesses" The Literary Gazette (30 June 1827) 412.
47.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Review of Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses; The Companion (9 July 1828) 397-99.
48.	1829  Moreami, "Lines written on returning The Works of Hannah More" Ladies' Literary Port Folio [Philadelphia] 1 (26 August 1829) 294.
49.	1834  Sara Coleridge to Emily Trevenen, August 1834; Coleridge, Memoir and Letters (1874) 77-79.
50.	1837  Thomas Babington Macaulay to Napier, 15 June 1837; Life and Letters, ed. Trevelyan; in Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 5:191.
51.	1846  John Dix, "A Day with Hannah More" Pen and Ink Sketches of Poets, Preachers, and Politicians (1846) 53-69.
52.	1847  Joseph Cottle, in Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (1847) 39-42.
53.	1855  Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record; or, Sketches of all Distinguished Women (1852; 1855) 442-44.
54.	1857  Samuel Griswold Goodrich, in Recollections of a Lifetime (1857) 2:163-68.
55.	1858  Cyrus Redding, in Fifty Years' Recollections (1858) 1:142-43.
56.	1871  S. C. Hall, "Hannah More" in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 67-77.
57.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 229.
58.	1883  Eric S. Robertson, in English Poetesses, a Series of Critical Biographies (1883) 137-38.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Hannah More:

1.	1782  Anonymous, "Anecdotes of the Author" European Magazine 1 (March 1782) 206.
2.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
3.	1789  Anonymous, "Memoirs of Miss Hannah More" New London Magazine 5 (December 1789) 567.
4.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:59-60.
5.	1815  Anonymous, "Mrs. Hannah More" La Belle Assemblee NS 12 (October 1815) 147-49.
6.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 240-41.
7.	1833  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 103 (October 1833) 272-75.
8.	1834  John Gibson Lockhart, "Life of Hannah More" Quarterly Review 52 (November 1834) 416-41.
9.	1843  Anne Katherine Elwood, in Memoirs of the Literary Ladies of England (1843) 1:259-83.
10.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:578-80.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1777  Anna Laetitia Barbauld:   Hannah More, 1777; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:68.
2.	1777  Rev. Richard Polwhele:   Hannah More ["Miss M."] to Richard Polwhele, 10 October 1777; Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections (1826) 1:71-72.
3.	1780  Richard Tickell:   Hannah More to Mrs. Boscawen, 13 May 1780; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:107.
4.	1781  Frances Brooke:   Hannah More, 1781; Memoirs of Hannah More, ed. W. Roberts (1834) 1:100-01.
5.	1781  Sir William Jones:   Hannah More, 1781; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:126.
6.	1781  Bp. Beilby Porteus:   Hannah More, 1781; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:122-23.
7.	1782  Anna Laetitia Barbauld:   Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 272.
8.	1782  William Hayley:   Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 288-89.
9.	1782  Bp. Robert Lowth:   Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 270.
10.	1782  Henry Mackenzie:   Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 284-85.
11.	1782  Samuel Richardson:   Hannah More, in "Sensibility" Sacred Dramas (1782) 283.
12.	1783  James Beattie:   Hannah More to her sister, 29 May 1783; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:164.
13.	1783  John Hoole:   Hannah More, 19 March 1783; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:160.
14.	1783  Horace Walpole:   Hannah More to her sister, 1783; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:165.
15.	1784  Francis Beaumont:   Hannah More to Mr. Pepys, 1784; in Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:198.
16.	1785  Christopher Anstey:   Hannah More to her sister, 1785; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:228.
17.	1785  Ann Yearsley:   Hannah More to Richard Polwhele, 1785; in Reminiscences in Prose and Verse (1836) 1:17.
18.	1786  William Cowper:   Hannah More to her sister, February 1786; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:235.
19.	1786  Elizabeth Montagu:   Hannah More, in Bas Bleu (1786) 75-76.
20.	1786  David Murray:   Hannah More to her sister, 10 May 1786; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:241.
21.	1787  Rev. Joseph Warton:   Hannah More to Elizabeth Montagu, 24 August 1787; Reginald Blunt, Mrs. Montagu, 1762-1800 (1923) 2:213.
22.	1789  Henry Lawes:   Hannah More to her sister, 1789; in Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 1:332.
23.	1797  Rev. William Mason:   Hannah More, 1797; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 3:16.
24.	1810  Thomas Babington Macaulay:   Hannah More, May 1810; Life and Letters of Zachary Macaulay; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 6:91.
25.	1812  Anna Seward:   Hannah More, to Lady Sparrow, February 1812; Memoirs of Hannah More (1835) 2:190.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1785  Ann Yearsley:   Hannah More, "Prefatory Letter to Mr. Montagu" in Ann Yearsley, Poems on Several Occasions (1785) iii-xii.