Draft:Maria Hare

Maria Hare, after Giovanni Battista Canevari

Maria Hare (22 November 1798 – 13 November 1870),^[1] birth name Maria Leycester, was an English diarist and memoirist. She was an assiduous correspondent, and collected family letters.

Maria Hare is known as the widow of Augustus William Hare, and as the central figure of Memorials of a Quiet Life, the biographical work published in the years after her death by her adopted son Augustus Hare. She was recognised posthumously both as a participant in a close-knit group of evangelical Christians largely drawn from the Hare, Maurice and Stanley families, and as an exemplar of Christian faith. In her lifetime she published only a pamphlet to raise charitable support at the time of Lancashire Cotton Famine.

Early life and background

She was the daughter of the Rev. Oswald Leycester (bapt. 1752 – 1846) and his first wife Mary Johnson; her father was rector of Stoke on Tern in Shropshire from 1806, and brother of George Leycester.^[2] Her father's sister Martha Elizabeth married in 1793 the barrister John Adolphus.^[3] Maria's sister Catherine married in 1810 the future bishop Edward Stanley;^[4] Edward Penrhyn, who changed his surname in 1817, was her brother.^[5]

In 1809 Maria Leycester was sent to a small boarding school at Leighton Cottage, near Parkgate, Cheshire, where children of the Stanleys of Alderley were among the pupils.^[6] She returned home in 1810, after her sister's marriage. There she was taught French and Italian by her father, continuing also to take tuition from her sister by correspondence.^[7]

In 1812 Maria's mother died.^[8] Her father married again, in 1814, to Eliza White, daughter of the late Charles White of Sale, Cheshire and Manchester.^[2][9]

Martin Stow

The Leycester family were on good terms with Reginald Heber, who became rector of nearby Hodnet in 1807.^[8][10] Maria Leycester met there the Rev. Martin Stow, acting as curate to Heber, and became engaged to him.^[8][11] Stow, a Fellow of New College, Oxford from 1812, had a position as Protestant chaplain at Genoa, apparently with some financial support from the college, from 1821, appointed by William Howley. There he encountered Mary Shelley in 1822, after the death by drowning of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley by drowning.^[12][13]

Hodnet Rectory, 29 March 1823, drawing by Maria Leycester

Augustus William Hare, a clerical friend of Stow, was a first cousin of Heber's wife Amelia, daughter of William Davies Shipley. The engagement of Stow and Maria Leycester was not approved by her father: in fact Stow on marriage would give up his fellowship. Heber was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, and Stow accepted a position as chaplain with him.^[14] On a last visit to Stoke on Tern, Hare accompanied Stow.^[15] Stow died of infectious disease in Dacca (Dhaka) in 1825.^[11]

Clergyman's wife 1829–1834

Maria Leycester and the Rev. Augustus William Hare, Stow's friend from New College and a Fellow there from 1810, were drawn together after his death, and they were married in 1829. Hare had become unpopular in the college by attacking the traditional relationship with Winchester College linked to founders' kin. In consequence, while Hare was offered a college living, Alton Barnes, its income was low.^[16]

Alton Barnes, where Hare became rector in 1829, was one of the smallest parishes in the country;^[17] Hare could, it seemed, aspire to Herstmonceux rectory, where the family had the advowson. That year Maria Hare opened a Sunday school.^[18]

Hare's great-uncle Robert Hare, rector of Herstmonceux, died in 1832.^[19] In the event, Hare refused the living, which was in gift of Francis George Hare, the eldest brother. His brother Julius Charles Hare then accepted the living, first making a journey to Italy.^[20][21]

Hare himself travelled to Italy for his health in the winter of 1833/4, with Maria, in a party that included his brother Marcus Theodore Hare RN, and his wife Lucy Ann née Stanley (married September 1833).^[22] He died at Rome in February 1834 and his widow Maria returned to England.^[23] Julius Hare took up the post of rector of Herstmonceux and moved into the rectory.^[24]

Aftermath and the adoption

Maria Hare, back in England went, firstly, to Alton Barnes to settle her husband's affairs. She then went to the Herstmonceux rectory, at Julius's invitation, and from there arranged for the care of the infant nephew Augustus Hare to be transferred to her. This matter was handled by an English nurse going to Italy.^[25] Two months after Augustus arrived with his nurse in Herstmonceux, Maria rented Lime House, near Herstmonceux rectory, as her family home.^[24]

Hare circle

John Sterling, a student of Julius Hare at Cambridge, became a curate at Herstmonceux in 1834; while he stayed not much longer than a year, he became a close friend of Maria Hare, who had long conversations with him.^[26][27] He had been an associate a few years earlier of F. D. Maurice, on the Athenaeum, and through him the Hares encountered the Maurice family.^[26][28] He had married in 1830 Susannah Barton;^[26] Maurice's first wife was her sister Anna.^[29] In 1844 Julius Hare married Esther Maurice, sister of F. D. Maurice.^[20]

Maria Hare came under the influence of Priscilla Maurice, another sister of F. D. Maurice, in religious matters, and was a "strong evangelical".^[30]

Reputation and religious model

The American minister Eden Burroughs Foster classed Maria Hare with four other "dutiful" women: Mary Lyon, Harriet Newell, Henrietta Hamlin the wife of Cyrus Hamlin and Mary Somerville.^[31]

Notes

1. Boase, Frederic (1892). Modern English Biography. Vol. I. Netherton and Worth, for the author. p. 1335.
2. "Leycester, Oswald (LCSR769O)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Harris, Jonathan. "Adolphus, John (1768–1845)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/170. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
4. Matthew, H. C. G. "Stanley, Edward (1779–1849)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26263. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
5. "Leycester (post Penrhyn), Edward (LCSR813E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
6. Hare, Augustus John Cuthbert (1890). Memorials of a Quiet Life. Vol. I. G. Allen. p. 7.
7. Croston, James (1883). Historic Sites of Lancashire and Cheshire. J. Heywood. p. 84.
8. Smith, George (1895). Bishop Heber: Poet and Chief Missionary to the East, Second Lord Bishop of Calcutta 1783-1826. J. Murray. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7905-5962-9.
9. "Married". Star (London). 12 July 1814. p. 4.
10. "Heber, Reginald (1807–1827)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 11712. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
11. Foster, Joseph (1888–1891). "Stow, Rev. Martin" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: James Parker – via Wikisource.
12. Gullifer, Robert (2024). "Italian Jobs: Two Nineteenth-Century New College Clergy in Italy" (PDF). New College Notes. 22 (7).
13. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1980). Bennett; Betty T. (eds.). The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: "A part of the elect.". Vol. I. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 268 note 1. ISBN 978-0-8018-2275-9.
14. Laird, Michael. "Heber, Reginald (1783–1826)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12853. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
15. Smith, George (1895). Bishop Heber: Poet and Chief Missionary to the East, Second Lord Bishop of Calcutta 1783-1826. J. Murray. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-7905-5962-9.
16. Wyland, Russell M. "Hare, Augustus William (1792–1834)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12297. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
17. Wise, Daniel (1880). Romantic Realities: A Series of Historic Pen-pictures, Illustrating the Romantic and Heroic Sides of Human Life : in Seven Parts. Phillips & Hunt. p. 36.
18. "Community History: Mrs Hare's School, Alton Barnes". apps.wiltshire.gov.uk.
19. Foster, Joseph (1888–1891). "Hare, Robert (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: James Parker – via Wikisource.
20. Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hare, Julius Charles" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
21. Distad, Norman Merrill (1979). Guessing at Truth: The Life of Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855). Patmos Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-915762-07-1.
22. O'Byrne, William R. (1849). "Hare, Marcus Theodore" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. p. 463.
23. Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hare, Augustus William" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
24. Barnes, Malcolm (1985). Augustus Hare: Victorian Gentleman. London: Allen & Unwin. p. 25. ISBN 004920100X.
25. Barnes, Malcolm (1985). Augustus Hare: Victorian Gentleman. London: Allen & Unwin. pp. 10–11. ISBN 004920100X.
26. "Sterling, John (STRN824J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
27. Barnes, Malcolm (1985). Augustus Hare: Victorian Gentleman. London: Allen & Unwin. p. 200 note 15. ISBN 004920100X.
28. Barnes, Malcolm (1985). Augustus Hare: Victorian Gentleman. London: Allen & Unwin. p. 37. ISBN 004920100X.
29. Harrison, J. F. C. (28 October 2013). A History of the Working Men's College: 1854-1954. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-134-53083-0.
30. Barnes, Malcolm (1985). Augustus Hare: Victorian Gentleman. London: Allen & Unwin. pp. 13 and 38. ISBN 004920100X.
31. Foster, Eden Burroughs (1883). Four Pastorates: Glimpses of the Life and Thoughts of Eden B. Foster, D. D. Consisting of a Biographical Sketch, Eulogies, and Selections from His Writings. Lowell, Massachusetts: George M. Elliott. p. 217.