HANNAH MORE: HER MESSAGE AND HER METHOD by MARGARET WINTERS ANDREWS B.A., Denison University, 1954 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE/ UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June, 1968 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely. available for reference and Study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by h its representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of History The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date June. 1968 ii Abstract Hannah More (1745-1833), the daughter of an impover• ished gentleman-schoolmaster, rose through charm and literary- talent into the brilliant London literary society of the last quarter of the eighteenth century. In middle age she became an Evangelical and joined the "Clapham Saints" in their cam• paigns for "vital religion" and for reformation of manners and morals. She made her contribution through the establish• ment of Sunday and day schools for the poor in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, and through the composition of "improving" books for rich and poor. These didactic works were vehicles for her social and religious philosophy, and Hannah More intended that they should be the means for conversion to these ideas. Her tra• ditional and conservative social philosophy saw society as an organic, hierarchical structure, cemented by deference and paternalism. Her religion was part of the broader evan• gelical revival and stressed deep personal commitment, scripturalism, missionary zeal, and regular religious duties. Her method of persuasion ignored industrialization and assumed that Englishmen of various ranks still accepted the traditional social framework; at the same time it played upon the fears and privations of the moment which grew from the industrial and French revolutions, and from the Napoleon• ic Wars. iii Her books were popular, primarily because her attitudes matched those of many of her countrymen; many of her opponents were even more conservative than she was. Her popularity did not decline noticeably until after her death. By mid-nineteenth century her ideas were increas• ingly out of keeping with those held by part of the reading public, and for them the obsolescence of her social views hastened the eclipse of her religious writings. Another group continued to accept the old inter-dependent social relationship or to fashion new organic structures. They could still accept Hannah More's views and provided her with readers during the greater part of the nineteenth century. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........ TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....... CHAPTER I: Hannah More ..... CHAPTER II: Hannah More's Message: A Product of Her Times ..... CHAPTER III: Hannah More's Method: For the "Better Sort of People .... CHAPTER IV: Hannah More's Method: For the Lower Orders ...... CHAPTER V: Conclusion . BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX ........ V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people whose assistance has made this thesis possible. The staff of the British Museum and of the University of British Columbia library have been patient and ingenious in answering queries. The University of British Columbia history department provided a grant which made research in England feasible. Two members of that department have been particularly generous with their time and help. Dr. John Norris guided my reading in modern British history, and gave valuable suggestions and criticisms on the first three chapters. Dr. James Winter directed my research from its inception with thoroughness, perception, and tact. Without the encouragement and co-operation of my husband and children the task could never have been under• taken nor completed. To them all I give sincere thanks. CHAPTER I Hannah More Hannah More is known to history as a minor eighteenth century dramatist, a member of literary salons, an active participant in the Evangelical revival, and an educator of young ladies and of the poor. She was all of these, but was best known to her contemporaries as a didactic author. She wrote to convince her readers that a set of religious and social ideas should be implemented in their lives. She was one part of a crusade to improve the manners, principles, and spirituality of England, and the Victorians' conformity, at least externally, to its standards is a measure of its success. Her didactic books were well received because she said something which was important to her readers, in a way which evoked a sympathetic response. Her own life experiences in• fluenced the message she offered and the propaganda methods which she employed. As a conservative parvenu in a period of revolution she appears to have struck a note which harmonized with the emotional and intellectual predisposition of a signi• ficant portion of her countrymen. If her ideas paralleled those of her readers her responses to the contemporary envir• onment may have been typical of theirs. Thus familiarity with her life throws light upon Hannah More, the propagandist, and upon her period. Her father, Jacob More, had hoped to enter the church, but the failure of a lawsuit against a cousin meant that this 2 was not economically possible, and so he had chosen teaching as a career. With the lowering of his professional expecta• tions he left his native Norfolk and moved west to Glouces• tershire. When Hannah was born on February 2, 1745» he was master of the Free School at Fishponds in Stapleton parish.1 Her father gave all five daughters their basic education, and even before they were old enough for formal instruction he recited the rolling speeches from favorite Greek and Latin texts and then translated them into English for the benefit of the little girls upon his knee.2 Although Jacob More had been forced to relinquish a career in the church its hold upon his heart had not weakened. He inculcated in his daughters moral principles based upon religion and Sabbatarianism.3 He was a high churchman, but had been influenced by dissent. His mother was a staunch Presbyterian and two of his great- uncles had been captains in Oliver Cromwell*s army.^ His blend of orthodoxy and puritanism, passed on to his daughters, predisposed them to respond with sympathy to the Evangelical movement within the church. Hannah was the next to youngest of the More sisters and was early recognized as the brightest of a clever family. Before she was four she had recited her catechism in church to the admiration of the minister and had amazed her parents by teaching herself to read. She delighted in writing, and created "suppositious letters to depraved characters to reclaim 'them from their errors"** and composed poems and essays. She added application to ability: a clerical Latin tutor who was 3 later engaged to polish her education said that she had learned more, in a shorter period, than any student he had ever known.0 Her studies included modern languages (French, Spanish, and Italian) and history and literature.^ o In early childhood chronic ill health became evident. Her first biographer, writing just after her death, spoke of a recurrent "morbid sensibility of constitution, which exposed Q her to severe suspensions of her mental activity." It has been suggested that this was a nineteenth century euphemism for a nervous breakdown.^° This diagnosis is questionable. Except for the lengthy incapacitating illness which coincided with the vituperative Blagdon controversy (a public battle between conservative and Evangelical church factions over one of her Mendip schools) her ill health did not stop her pen for any length of time. Bishop of London, Beilby Porteus who knew her intimately wrote: "You well know that . the vigour of your mind is in inverse ratio to the strength of your body."^ She suffered from bronchitis, "bilious fever," ague, nervous 1 o headaches, and sleeplessness. While it xs likely that she was susceptible to respiratory ailments, much of her ill health may have been triggered by emotional pressures. She was a sen• sitive, ambitious, and insecure person. Illness may have been an unconscious escape from, or effect of, frustration and 1"? internal conflict. She did not use illness as an excuse for giving up in the face of pressure, she merely continued to work from bed, with some of the problems held at bay by her chamber door. 4 There were stresses upon all of the More girls as daughters of a gentleman in reduced circumstances. There were others to which Hannah alone was subject. There is evi• dence that her parents disagreed about her training, and that two roles in life were therefore presented to the child. In a family with no son upon whom to pin the family aspirations, Hannah as the most promising of the five girls, was the sub• stitute. Her mother seems to have been whole-heartedly behind such a role for her daughter, for it was she who bought Hannah the longed for quire of paper for her juvenile literary ef• forts^ and who supported Hannah's entreaties for permission to undertake new studies.^-* Jacob More had a strong dislike of female pedantry. He started to instruct Hannah in both Latin and mathematics, but was so alarmed at her progress that he permanently discontinued the latter study.1° Their daughter's adult ambivalence echoed the parents' lack of agree- 17 ment. ' In her didactic works she set strict boundaries to the field of feminine learning, boundaries which she did not always observe herself.