ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

September 16, 2004

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal."

- Hannah More (1745 - 1833)

Hannah More was born in Gloucestshire, England, in 1745.  She was the fourth of five daughters born to Jacob More and Mary Grace More.  Jacob was a schoolmaster and Mary was the daughter of a farmer in a nearby village. They moved to Bristol, when Jacob lost a significant amount of money in a lawsuit concerning land ownership. Hannah More was raised in tight quarters on a restricted income.

In 1758, Hannah's oldest sister, Mary, opened a girls’ school in Bristol.  Hannah was a pupil of the school when it opened, and she eventually she became a teacher there.  At seventeen, Hannah wrote her first play The Search after Happiness. The girls’ school performed it. Hannah became close with the actor William Powell, during her time at the Theatre Royal Bristol.

At twenty-two, Hannah became engaged to William Turner, the landowner of the Belmont.  After a six-year courting period, Hannah grew tired of waiting and she called off the engagement.  As reconciliation, Turner paid her an annuity of £200 which allowed her to work on her writing. Her next play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. During the next 15 years, she spent time in London and with the help of actor-manager David Garrick, and his wife Eva, made the acquaintance of important political and society figures including Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Elizabeth Montagu. Her play Percy was produced by David Garrick in 1777, and Fatal Falsehood was staged briefly in 1779. With the death of her mentors, Garrick and Johnson, Hannah stopped writing for theatre and became the companion of the widowed Eva Garrick.  This drew her into the Bluestockings, who were a group that met to discuss new literary works.  They were comprised of females with an occasional male guest. 

Beginning with her Sacred Dramas in 1782, Hannah began her religious writing, in 1784, she discovered Ann Yearsley, the ‘poetical milkmaid of Bristol', and helped publish her poems. Their relationship ended abruptly in 1787.   

From her writing interests, she began friendships with John Newton, an Evangelical clergyman and hymn writer, and William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament.  In 1788, during the first parliamentary debate on slave trade, Hannah published her poem, Slavery, which contained he abolitionist and religious views.

Hannah More went on to compose many other writings consisting mainly of religious writings and.  Hannah More spent her later years in retirement, writing to guide young women in the trials and tribulations of life and contributing in national debates.

Wishing you a sharp eye and a steady focus.  

Sincerely,