Mary Anne Hearn
Mary Anne Hearn was a notable religious writer and educator from the Victorian era who is remembered for her significant contributions to literature and her role in supporting working-class women. Born as the eldest of five children to a shoemaker, Hearn faced challenges early in life, including the death of her mother, which forced her to leave school and care for her siblings. Despite these difficulties, she became self-educated and found her literary voice through her church, where she was encouraged by her pastor to write poetry. Hearn gained prominence through the evangelical publication Christian World, where she regularly contributed hymns and poems.
In addition to her writing, Hearn served as headmistress of a school and was active in her community, establishing a thrift society to assist working-class women. By the late 1870s, she had garnered enough popularity to lecture publicly, allowing her to achieve financial independence. Throughout her life, she edited The Sunday School Times for twenty-four years. Although she passed away in relative obscurity, her autobiography and other works remain important for understanding the experiences of working-class women and the religious culture of her time.
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Subject Terms
Mary Anne Hearn
Writer
- Born: December 17, 1834
- Birthplace: Farningham, Kent, England
- Died: March 16, 1909
- Place of death: Barmouth, Wales
Biography
Mary Anne Hearn, one of the most prolific religious writers of her era, never published under her own name, feeling that to do so would be “presumptuous” for one of her lowly origins. Hers was—as the title of her autobiography and best-known work indicates—A Working Woman’s Life. The eldest of five children born to a village shoemaker, Hearn was largely self-educated. Although she attended some school, when she was twelve her mother died, and Hearn was obliged to quit school in order to take charge of her younger siblings. Both of Hearn’s parents were devout if unconventional Christians, and it was through the church that Hearn came to literary prominence.
When she was seventeen, she was introduced to serious literature by her pastor, who also encouraged her to write poetry. When he founded the evangelical publication Christian World, he first published Hearn, then hired her to write regularly for him. Hearn continued to write hymns, lyrics, and poems for the periodical for the remainder of her life. She also worked as an educator, first as an assistant to a headmistress in Bristol (she left after one year to care for her dying sister, Rebecca), and starting in 1859, she served seven years as headmistress in her own right of a school in Northhampton.
When Hearn’s sister Hephzibah moved to Northhampton with her family, Hearn moved in with them, and Hepzibah’s house became a meeting place for the hundreds of working-class women whom Hearn nurtured with Christian teachings and—more pragmatically—by setting up a thrift society for them so that they could improve their financial lot. By 1877, Hearn had become so popular with her public that she was invited to lecture to large crowds, an activity that brought in enough money that she could buy her own home. In addition, she continued to publish collections of her own verse, gleaned from pages of Christian World, and around this time she also agreed to take over editorship of The Sunday School Times, a position she retained for twenty-four years.
When she died by her home by the sea in Barmuth, Wales, Hearn was the last remaining member of her family. Today she is largely forgotten, but her work—particularly her autobiography—provides valuable insight into the lives of working-class women and the religious life of a large sector of Victorian society.