ONE PAGE LETTER DATED 15th MARCH 1813 FROM BARLEY WOOD , HAND WRITTEN AND SIGNED BY……………. Hannah More &###xA0;(2 February 1745 &###x2013; 7 September 1833)&##xA0. 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&###xA0; Johnson. As a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical philanthropist. &###xA0;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&###xA0; Bluestocking. Her plays and poetry became more evangelical and she became part of a group of campaigners against the&###xA0; slave trade. In the 1790s she wrote several&###xA0; Cheap Repository Tracts. &###xA0;which covered moral, religious and political topics for sale or distribution to literate poor people. This coincided with her increasing philanthropic work in the&###xA0; Mendip. &###xA0;area, encouraged by&###xA0; William Wilberforce. Which included the establishment of local schools. Born in 1745 at&###xA0; Fishponds. &###xA0;in the parish of&###xA0; Stapleton. &###xA0;a schoolmaster originally from&###xA0; Harleston, Norfolk. He was from a strong&###xA0; Presbyterian. &###xA0;family in Norfolk, but had become a member of the&###xA0; 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&###xA0; excise. &###xA0;officer and was later appointed teacher at the Fishponds&###xA0; free school. They were a close family and the sisters were first educated by their father, learning&###xA0; Latin. &###xA0;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&###xA0; Seven Years’ War. &###xA0;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. In 1758 Jacob established his own girls’&###xA0; boarding school. &###xA0;at Trinity Street in Bristol for the elder sisters, Mary and Elizabeth to run, while he and his wife moved to Stony Hill in the city to open a school for boys. Hannah More became a pupil when she was twelve years old, and taught at the school in her early adulthood. In 1767 More gave up her share in the school after becoming engaged to William Turner of&###xA0; Tyntesfield. Whom she had met when he began teaching her cousins. &###xA0;After six years the wedding had not taken place and Turner seemed reluctant to name a date, and in 1773 the engagement was broken off; it seems that, as a consequence, More suffered a nervous breakdown and spent some time in&###xA0; Uphill. As compensation, Hannah More was induced to accept a &###xA3;200&###xA0; annuity. This set her free for literary pursuits, and in the winter of 1773&###x2013;74 she went to London in the company of her sisters, Sarah and Martha &###x2013; the first of many such trips she made at yearly intervals. Some verses that she had written on David Garrick’s version of&###xA0; King Lear. &###xA0;led to an acquaintance with the celebrated actor and playwright. &###xA0;was one of her literary models; on his opera of&###xA0; Attilio Regulo &###xA0;she based a drama, &###xA0; The Inflexible Captive. More standing, left, as a personification of&###xA0; Melpomene. Muse of tragedy, in the company of other bluestockings. More attempted to associate herself with London’s literary elite, including Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and&###xA0; Edmund Burke. Johnson is quoted as saying to her Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth having. ” He would later be quoted as calling her “the finest&###xA0; versifatrix. &###xA0;in the English language. &###xA0;She also became one of the prominent members of the&###xA0; Bluestocking. &###xA0;group of women engaged in polite conversation and literary and intellectual pursuits, attending the salon of&###xA0; Elizabeth Montagu. Where she also met and became acquainted with&###xA0; Frances Boscawen. &###xA0;and&###xA0; Hester Chapone. Some of whom were to become lifelong friends. She later wrote a witty celebration of her friends and the circle to which they belonged in her 1782 poem&###xA0; The Bas Bleu, or, Conversation , published in 1784. Garrick wrote the prologue and epilogue for Hannah More’s tragedy&###xA0; Percy , which was acted with great success at&###xA0; Covent Garden. &###xA0;in December 1777. &###xA0; Percy &###xA0;was revived in 1785 with&###xA0; Sarah Siddons. &###xA0;at&###xA0; Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. A copy of&###xA0; Percy &###xA0;was found amongst&###xA0; Mozart. S possessions in 1791. &###xA0;Another drama, &###xA0; The Fatal Falsehood , produced in 1779 after Garrick’s death, was less successful and, as a consequence of its failure, she never wrote for the stage again. However a tragedy entitled “The Inflexible Captive” was published in 1818. &###xA0;In 1781 she first met&###xA0; Horace Walpole. &###xA0; man of letters. &###xA0;and&###xA0; art historian. And corresponded with him from that time. At Bristol she discovered the poet&###xA0; Ann Yearsley. Lactilia, as Yearsley was called, published&###xA0; Poems, on Several Occasions &###xA0;in 1785, earning about &###xA3;600. These literary and social failures caused More’s withdrawal from London’s intellectual circles. In the 1780s Hannah More became a friend of&###xA0; James Oglethorpe. Who had long been concerned with slavery as a moral issue and who was working with&###xA0; Granville Sharp. &###xA0;in an early abolitionist capacity. &###xA0;More published&###xA0; Sacred Dramas &###xA0;in 1782 and it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems&###xA0; Bas-Bleu &###xA0;and&###xA0; Florio &###xA0;(1786) mark her gradual transition to more serious views of life, which were fully expressed in prose, in her&###xA0; Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society &###xA0;(1788), and&###xA0; An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World &###xA0;(1790). By this point she was intimate with&###xA0; William Wilberforce. &###xA0;and&###xA0; Zachary Macaulay. With whose evangelical views she was in sympathy. She published a poem on&###xA0; Slavery. &###xA0;in 1788, and was for many years a friend of&###xA0; Beilby Porteus. &###xA0; Bishop of London. &###xA0;and a leading&###xA0; abolitionist. Who drew her into the group of prominent campaigners against the&###xA0; slave trade. &###xA0;such as Wilberforce, &###xA0; Charles Middleton. &###xA0;and&###xA0; James Ramsay. In 1785 she bought a house, at Cowslip Green, near&###xA0; Wrington. Where she settled down to country life with her sister Martha, and wrote many ethical books and tracts:&###xA0; Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education &###xA0;(1799), &###xA0; Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess &###xA0;(1805), &###xA0; Coelebs in Search of a Wife. &###xA0;(only nominally a story, 1809), &###xA0; Practical Piety &###xA0;(1811), &###xA0; Christian Morals &###xA0;(1813), &###xA0; Character of St Paul &###xA0;(1815), &###xA0; Moral Sketches &###xA0;(1819). She was a rapid writer, and her work is consequently discursive, animated and formless. The originality and force of More’s writings perhaps explains her extraordinary popularity. &###xA0;At the behest of Porteus, she wrote many spirited rhymes and prose tales, the earliest of which was&###xA0; Village Politics, by Will Chip &###xA0;(1792), intended to counteract the doctrines of&###xA0; Thomas Paine. &###xA0;and the influence of the&###xA0; French Revolution. &###xA0;More became a prominent opponent of the&###xA0; slave trade. &###xA0;in the late 18th century. The success of&###xA0; Village Politics &###xA0;induced More and Porteus to begin the series of&###xA0; Cheap Repository Tracts. Which from 1795 to 1797 were produced at the rate of three a month. Perhaps the most famous of these is&###xA0; The&###xA0; Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. Describing a family of phenomenal frugality and contentment. This was translated into several languages. Two million copies of these rapid and telling sketches were circulated, in one year, teaching the poor in rhetoric of most ingenious homeliness to rely upon the virtues of content, sobriety, humility, industry, reverence for the&###xA0; British Constitution. Hatred of the French, trust in God and in the kindness of the&###xA0; gentry. Blue Plaque on the wall of Keepers Cottage, &###xA0; Brislington. She was shocked by strides for female education in France, saying “they run to study philosophy, and neglect their families to be present at lectures in anatomy”. In 1785 Hannah More moved to a cottage in rural&###xA0; Somerset. &###xA0; “to escape from the world gradually”. &###xA0;The school at&###xA0; Wedmore. &###xA0;received strong opposition from the locals, who petitioned the&###xA0; Dean of Wells. &###xA0;to remove her. &###xA0;of&###xA0; Blaise Castle. &###xA0;was a prodigious benefactor to More’s schools in the 1790s, and More modeled the idealised hero and heroine in&###xA0; Coelebs in Search of Wife &###xA0;(1809) on Mr and Mrs Harford. &###xA0;She refused to read&###xA0; Mary Wollstonecraft. S Rights of Women, saying&###xA0; so many women are fond of government… Because they are not fit for it. To be unstable and capricious is but too characteristic of our sex. In 1816, More is quoted as saying that’peace with France [is]… A worse evil than war’ following the Battle of Waterloo, and refused to allow a French translation of&###xA0; Coelebs. &###xA0;She turned down an honorary membership of the Royal Society of Literature because she considered her&###xA0; “sex alone a disqualification”. In the late-1780s Hannah and Martha More conducted philanthropic work in the&###xA0; Mendip. &###xA0;area, following encouragement by Wilberforce, who saw the poor conditions of the locals when he visited&###xA0; Cheddar. &###xA0;She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools by 1800 where reading, &###xA0; the Bible. &###xA0;and the&###xA0; catechism. &###xA0;were taught to local children. &###xA0;for the founding of&###xA0; Kenyon College. And a portrait of her hangs there in Peirce Hall. The More sisters met with a good deal of opposition in their works: the farmers thought that education, even to the limited extent of learning to read, would be fatal to agriculture, and the clergy, whose neglect she was making good, accused her of&###xA0; Methodist. In her old age, philanthropists from all parts made pilgrimages to see the bright and amiable old lady, and she retained all her faculties until within two years of her death. She spent the last five years of her life in&###xA0; Clifton. And died on 7 September 1833. She is buried at&###xA0; Church of All Saints, Wrington. &###xA0;a bust of her and&###xA0; John Locke. &###xA0;exist in the south porch. Several local schools and the&###xA0; Hannah More Academy. &###xA0;at&###xA0; Reisterstown, Maryland. &###xA0;are named in her honour. Hannah More Primary School was built in Old Market, Bristol in the 1840s. &###xA0;An image of More was used in 2012 on the&###xA0; Bristol Pound. &###xA0;’Hannah More Close’ is named after her. More’s reputation was not always positive – Augustine Birrell in his 1906 work&###xA0; Hannah More Once More &###xA0;admits burying all 19 volumes of her work in his garden in disgust. A SIGN OF THE TIMES LIMITED. WE HAVE BEEN IN THE AUTOGRAPH BUSINESS FOR OVER &###xA0;&###xA0;20 &###xA0;YEARS AND WE ARE PROUD TO BE MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSAL AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR? HAS A CODE OF ETHICAL STANDARDS&##xA0. & BY-LAWS THAT WE ABIDE BY AND ALL OF OUR ITEMS ARE ISSUED WITH A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY WHICH IS YOUR LIFETIME GUARANTEE. ALL ITEMS LISTED ARE AUTHENTIC SIGNED ITEMS&###xA0;!!! &###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0;&###xA0; WE DO NOT SELL COPIES , FACSIMILES OR PRE-PRINTS. CHEQUES ARE ONLY ACCEPTABLE WHEN DRAWN ON BRITISH BANKS IN POUNDS STERLING. See our other items. The item “HANNAH MORE WRITER & PHILANTHROPIST EXCELLENT HAND WRITTEN & SIGNED LETTER” is in sale since Thursday, February 16, 2017. This item is in the category “Collectables\Autographs\Certified Original Autographs\Historical”. The seller is “asignofthetimes2″ and is located in LITTLEBOROUGH. This item can be shipped worldwide.