Hannah More

Hannah More
Painting by H.W. Pickersgill (1821)
Born	(1745-02-02)2 February 1745 Fishponds, Bristol, England
Died	7 September 1833(1833-09-07) (aged 88) Clifton, Bristol, England
Resting place	Wrington, Somerset
Residence	Bristol London Wrington
Nationality	English
Occupation	Poet Playwright Author Educator
Known for	Poetry Drama Philanthropy

Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical philanthropist.

Born in Bristol she taught at a school established by her father, before beginning her writing career writing plays. She became involved with the literary elite in London becoming a leading member of the group. Her plays and poetry became more evangelical and she became part of a group of campaigners against the slave trade. In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts which covered moral, religious and political topics for sale or distribution to literate poor people. This coincided with her increasing philanthropic work in the Mendip area, encouraged by William Wilberforce, which included the establishment of local schools.

Born in 1745 at Fishponds in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol, Hannah More was the fourth of five daughters of Jacob More (1700-1783), a schoolmaster originally from Harleston, Norfolk. He was from a strong Presbyterian family in Norfolk, but had become a member of the Church of England, and originally intended to pursue a career in the Church, but after the disappointment of losing a lawsuit over an estate he had hoped to inherit, he moved to Bristol, where he became an excise officer and was later appointed teacher at the Fishponds free school.

They were a close family and the sisters were first educated by their father, learning Latin and mathematics: Hannah was also taught by her elder sisters, through whom she learned French. Her conversational French was improved by spending time with French prisoners of war in Frenchay during the Seven Years' War. She was keen to learn, and possessed a sharp intellect - she was assiduous in studying and, according to family tradition, began writing at an early age.