More, Hannah (1745–1833)

English author. In 1774 she went to London and made the acquaintance of Dr Johnson, Edmund Burke, and the leaders of the bluestocking coterie. She wrote two plays for David Garrick, Percy 1777, an artificial and introspective work which finds an outlet for emotional intensity in tragic action, and The Fatal Secret 1779. After Garrick's death, however, she decided that play-going was immoral and led a retired life mainly among clergymen and philanthropists. She started Sunday schools in Cheddar and organized a movement that led to the formation of the Religious Tract Society 1799. She wrote Coelebs in Search of a Wife 1809 and a tract, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, among many other religious works. She left her fortune to charities and religious institutions.