{{Short description|English writer}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} [[File:Barbara Hofland.jpg|thumb|right]] [[File:Richmond, St Mary Magdalene's Church, Barbara Hofland memorial.jpg|thumb|right]] '''Barbara Hofland''' (1770 – 4 November 1844) was an English writer of some 66 [[didacticism|didactic]], moral stories for children, and of schoolbooks and poetry. She was asked by [[John Soane]] to write a description of his still extant museum in London's [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]].
==Life== Born Barbara Wreaks or Wreakes, her father Robert Wreakes was a [[Sheffield]] manufacturer, but he died when she was three and she was raised by a maiden aunt in [[Dinnington, South Yorkshire|Dinnington]], where she was briefly educated at the village's [[dame school]]. She began writing for the local paper and started a [[hatmaking|milliner's]] shop, but she sold it when she married the businessman Thomas Bradshawe Hoole in 1796, only to be widowed two years later with an infant son.<ref name="Butts 1995">Dennis Butts: The role of women writers in early children's literature. In: ''Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature'', ed. Maria Nikolajeva (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 1995).</ref>
She went to live with her mother-in-law in [[Attercliffe]], and supported herself partly from generous subscriptions given for a book of her poetry.<ref>''Poems'' (Sheffield: J. Montgomery, 1805).</ref> In 1809 she opened a girls' boarding school at [[Grove House, Harrogate]] and developed it as a ladies' [[finishing school]], a forerunner to what is now [[Harrogate College]]{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}, but she kept it only until 1811, when she moved to London.
In 1810, Barbara Wreaks married the landscape artist [[Thomas Christopher Hofland]] (1777–1843). Although her new husband had a good local reputation and had exhibited at the [[Royal Academy]], his wife's writings were to remain the main source of family income. In 1816 she was living in Newman Street, north of [[Oxford Street]],<ref name="racollection">{{Cite web |url=http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?session=yc6LKkhyWHQ&_IXSR_=&_IXSP_=0&_MREF_=68125&_IXACTION_=display&_IXSPFX_=templates/full/&_IXlink=y |title=Royal Academy of Arts Collections - Archive |publisher=racollection.org.uk |accessdate=8 July 2016 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200035/http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?session=yc6LKkhyWHQ&_IXSR_=&_IXSP_=0&_MREF_=68125&_IXACTION_=display&_IXSPFX_=templates/full/&_IXlink=y |url-status=dead }}</ref> but they moved to [[Twickenham]] that year.
Her son Frederic, an [[Anglican]] priest, predeceased her in 1832, as did her husband in 1843. She died on 4 November 1844 and was buried at [[Richmond, London|Richmond, Surrey]].<ref name="Butts 1995"/><ref>Megan A. Norcia: ''X Marks the Spot: Women Writers Map the Empire for British Children, 1790–1895''. Chapter 1. (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010) [http://www.victorianweb.org/history/norcia1.html Retrieved 29 July 2010]</ref><ref name="ODNB">Dennis Butts, "Hofland, Barbara (bap. 1770, d. 1844)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13457 Retrieved 20 December 2015, pay-walled].</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.september10th1945.com/sheffieldcitizens.htm#BarbaraHofland |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2010-07-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716041506/http://www.september10th1945.com/sheffieldcitizens.htm |archivedate=16 July 2011 |df=dmy}}. Retrieved 29 July 2010.</ref> Her life by Thomas Ramsay was published in 1849.<ref>''The Life and Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland'' (London, 1849).</ref>
==Writings== During her writing life, Hofland became a friend of the architect [[John Soane]], who asked her to provide a description of his [[Sir John Soane's Museum|museum]] in [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]],<ref>''From Enlightenment to Romanticism. Anthology II''. Ed. Carmen Lavin and Ian Donachie. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.), p. 188. {{ISBN|0-7190-6672-7}}.</ref> and of the writers [[Maria Edgeworth]] and [[Mary Russell Mitford]]. Her first story, ''The History of an Officer's Widow'' (1809), earned her £6 from [[John Harris (publisher)|John Harris]], a London publisher. One of her many popular books (as Mrs. Hofland) was ''The Blind Farmer and His Children'' (1816). Her most popular children's book was ''The Son of a Genius'', about an impulsive artist, which may contain autobiographical elements. It had been reprinted at least 14 times in England by 1841, as well as nine times in America, and in translations into French and other languages. Most of her works depict the struggles of a Christian family against hardships.<ref name="ODNB" /> Hofland's ''Tales of the Priory'' (1820), ''Tales of the Manor'' (1822) and ''Self-Denial'' (Pub in 1827) the 1835 edition can be read online,<ref name="google">{{Cite book |title=Tales of the manor|author=Hofland, B. |date=1822 |url=https://archive.org/details/talesofmanor04hofl |accessdate=8 July 2016}}</ref> as can ''The Young Crusoe'' (1828),<ref name="erbzine">{{cite web|url=http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/ycrusoe.htm|title=ERBzine 1892: Mrs. [Barbara] Hofland -- The Young Crusoe (1828) |author=William G. Hillman |publisher=erbzine.com |accessdate=8 July 2016}}</ref> and a number of others.<ref name="archive">{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:%22Hofland,%20Mrs.%20(Barbara),%201770-1844%22 |title=Internet Archive Search: creator:"Hofland, Mrs. (Barbara), 1770-1844" |accessdate=8 July 2016}}</ref> She also wrote geographical and topographical books for teaching purposes, and a longer work in verse: ''A Season at Harrogate'' (1812).<ref>''A Season at Harrogate, in a series of poetical epistles, from Benjamin Blunderhead Esquire to his mother...'' (Knaresborough: R. Wilson, 1812).</ref>
Hofland wrote a description and a poem on [[Whiteknights Park]], the seat of the [[George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough|5th Duke of Marlborough]]. The text, the drawings and etchings by her husband and the money they invested in publishing and printing were never reimbursed by the "profligate" duke.<ref>Mary Soames: ''The Profligate Duke: George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, and his Duchess'' (London: Collins, 1987).</ref>
==Selected works== {{columns-list|colwidth=30em|* Book of poetry (1805) * ''The History of an Officer's Widow'' (London, J. Harris, 1809) *''Little Dramas for Young People by Mrs. Hoole'' (1810)<ref>* {{cite book|last=Mann |first=David |title=Women Playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660-1823 |publication-place=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=1996 |isbn=0-253-33087-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/womenplaywrights0000mann_z4f8}}</ref> *''The Son of a Genius'' (London, J. Harris, 1812) *''Says She to her Neighbour, What?'' (London: Newman, 1812) *''The Daughter-in-Law'' (London: Newman, 1813) *''Patience and Perseverance'' (London: Newman, 1813) *''A Visit to London; or, Emily and Her Friends'' (London: Newman, 1814) *''The History of a Clergyman's Widow'' (London : Newman, 2nd e., 1814) *''The Merchant's Widow and her Family'' (London: Newman, 1814) *''A Father As He Should Be'' (London: Newman, 1815) *''The Maid of Moscow'' (London: Newman, 1816) *''Matilda'' (London: Newman, 1816) *''Tales of the Priory'' (London: Longman, 1820) *''Tales of the Manor'' (London: Longman, 1822) *"The Daughter of a Genius" (Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1823) *''Integrity'' (London: Longman, 1823) *''Decision'' (London: Longman, 1824) *''Moderation'' (London: Longman, 1825) *''Reflection'' (London : Longman, 1826) *''Self-Denial'' (London: Longman, 1827) *''Katherine'' (London: Newman, 1828) *''The Young Crusoe'' (1828) *''Beatrice'' (London: Longman, 1829) *''The Captives in India'' (London: Bentley, 1834) *''White-Knights''. A Poem called: "A Descriptive Account of the Mansion and Gardens of White-Knights, a Seat of His Grace the Duke of Marlborough" }}
==See also== {{Portal |Children's literature}} *[[List of Minerva Press authors]] *[[Minerva Press]]
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Literature== *[[Mary Soames]]; The Profligate Duke: George Spencer Churchill, Fifth Duke of Marlborough, and His Duchess (1987)
==External links== *{{Gutenberg author |id=25003|name=Barbara Hofland}} *{{FadedPage |id=Hofland, Barbara |name=Barbara Hofland |author=yes}} *{{Internet Archive author |sname=Barbara Hofland}} *{{Librivox author |id=2967}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofland, Barbara}} [[Category:1770 births]] [[Category:1844 deaths]] [[Category:People educated at Dinnington High School]] [[Category:18th-century English writers]] [[Category:19th-century English writers]] [[Category:English children's writers]] [[Category:English women writers]] [[Category:Anglican writers]] [[Category:Women of the Regency era]] [[Category:Writers from Sheffield]] [[Category:Burials at St Mary Magdalene, Richmond]]