{{Short description|English diarist and Quaker minister}} {{Infobox person | name = Hannah Chapman Backhouse | birth_name = Hannah Chapman Gurney | birth_date = {{Birth date|1787|02|09|df=y}} | birth_place = Norwich, Norfolk | death_date = {{Death date and age|1850|05|06|1787|02|09|df=y}} | death_place = Darlington, County Durnham | occupation = Diarist; Minister for the Society of Friends | spouse = Jonathan Backhouse (married 1811) }} '''Hannah Chapman Backhouse''' (née '''Gurney'''; 9 February 1787 – 6 May 1850)<ref name="wikisource">{{Cite book |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Obituary_of_the_members_of_the_Society_of_Friends_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland,_for_the_year_1850/Hannah_Chapman_Blackhouse |title=The Annual Monitor or, Obituary of the Members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland for the year 1850 |year=1851 |pages=86–111}}</ref> was an English diarist and Quaker minister. Her work in America was influential in strengthening evangelicalism in American Quakerism.<ref name="archive">{{Cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Myron Dee |url=http://archive.org/details/williamhobsonfou00gold |title=William Hobson and the founding of Quakerism in the Pacific northwest |year=1962 |publisher=Boston, Massachusetts : Boston University |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center}}</ref>

== Life == Hannah Chapman Gurney was born in Norwich on 2 February 1787 to Joseph and Jane Gurney (née Chapman).<ref name="wikisource"/> By birth, and later by marriage, she was connected to a financially powerful Quaker network which included the Barclay, Fox, Fry and Pease families.<ref name="durhamweb">{{Cite web |last=Banham |first=John |title=Hannah Chapman Backhouse (1787-1850) Quaker traveller |url=https://www.durhamweb.org.uk/dclhs/downloads/HCBackhouseDBVol6.pdf |website=Durham biographies volume 6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Backhouse Family |url=https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/318/The-Backhouse-Family |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Quakers in the World}}</ref> One cousin was Elizabeth Fry.<ref name="durhamweb"/>

In 1811, she married Jonathan Backhouse, a banker and financier,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Backhouse Papers - Archives Hub |url=http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb33-bac |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name="oxforddnb">{{Cite ODNB |title=Backhouse, Jonathan (1779–1842), banker and financier |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47953 |access-date=2023-12-26 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/47953 |last1=Kirby |first1=M. W. }}</ref> and the couple settled at Darlington.<ref name="wikisource"/> They had three children who survived into adulthood: two daughters and a son.<ref name="oxforddnb"/>

== Quaker ministry == In 1820, Hannah Chapman Backhouse first spoke as a minister.<ref name="wikisource"/><ref name="durhamweb"/> In 1826, she visited Friends in Darlington, with Quaker minister<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Isaac Stephenson diary {{!}} Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/hcmc-975-01-076 |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu}}</ref> Isaac Stephenson.<ref name="wikisource"/> She travelled with him to Manchester, Lancaster, and Leeds, and from this period onwards advanced rapidly in ministry, holding numerous public meetings.<ref name="wikisource"/> In 1827, Hannah and her husband spent two months visiting Devon, Cornwall, and the Scilly Isles.<ref name="wikisource"/> In 1829, they visited Ireland.<ref name="wikisource"/>

In 1830, she travelled to America, accompanied by her husband.<ref name="wikisource"/> She spent five years there, visiting many meetings of Friends.<ref name="wikisource"/> In 1933, Jonathan wrote:<blockquote>I do think my wife's labours in these parts, have been of essential service; - helped some sunken ones out of a pit, strengthened some weak hands, and confirmed some wavering ones, as well as comforted the mourners. She has no cause to be discouraged about her labours, they have been blessed.<ref name="wikisource"/></blockquote>Aside from religious teaching, the Backhouses also focused on schooling and slavery.<ref name="durhamweb"/> In Indiana, Hannah was “remembered... for her advocacy of First Day Scripture Schools,<ref name="archive"/> many of which were established with her encouragement”.<ref name="durhamweb"/> Backhouse also recorded some resistance to her ministry, noting that "In a few places they refuse women’s preaching".<ref name="durhamweb"/>

When Jonathan Backhouse returned to England, Hannah's companion became Eliza P. Kirkbride.<ref name="wikisource"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Sheila |url=http://archive.org/details/womenreligionfem0000unse |title=Women, Religion, and Feminism in Britain, 1750-1900 |year=2002 |publisher=New York : Palgrave |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-333-99307-1}}</ref> She described Kirkbride as "a gay, animated young person, who, through a succession of afflictions, had become quite serious."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=William |url=http://archive.org/details/friendsahalfcen00robigoog |title=Friends of a Half Century: Fifty Memorials with Portraits of Members of the Society of Friends |publisher=Edward Hicks |others=University of Michigan |year=1891 |language=en}}</ref> Kirkbride and Backhouse travelled the southern states of the US, where Backhouse wrote about the evils of slavery.<ref name="durhamweb"/>

== Later years == In 1835, they returned to England, and for the next ten years, Hannah continued to travel across England and Scotland.<ref name="wikisource"/> During this time, her eldest surviving son, aged 17, her husband, and a daughter all died.<ref name="wikisource"/>

During late 1849, her health began to decline.<ref name="wikisource"/> She died on 6 May 1850 at Polam Hall in Darlington.<ref name="wikisource"/><ref name="durhamweb"/>

== References == <references />

== External links ==

* Extracts from the journal and letters of Hannah Chapman Backhouse at the Internet Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backhouse, Hannah Chapman}} Category:1787 births Category:1850 deaths Category:People from Norwich Category:English Quakers Hannah Hannah Chapman Category:19th-century English women writers