Hannah Chapman Backhouse (
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)
Maiden name
Gurney
Short biography
The daughter of Jane and Joseph Gurney, Hannah was born in Norwich in 1827 into an extended family of Quakers. In 1811, she married the Quaker banker Jonathan Backhouse (1779- 1842), further connecting her to a financially powerful Quaker network including the Barclay, Fox, Fry, and Pease families.
Full biography
Not particularly religious in early life, in 1820 Backhouse began to speak at Quaker meetings. From the late 1820s, she began travelling to Quaker meetings further afield, including in Devon, Cornwall, Ireland, and North America.
Backhouse is noted in Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis for the circulation of an unpublished book of extracts from her diaries, detailing her thoughts, ministry, and travels.
Date of birth
09 February 1827
Date of death
06 May 1850
Collection (people)
Occupation