Barbara Hofland
Barbara Hofland (1770 – 4 November 1844) was an English writer of some 66 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.
Also recorded as Barbara Wreaks · Barbara Hoole
Barbara Hofland
Jim Linwood · CC BY 2.0
- Full name
- Barbara Wreaks.
- Born
- 1770. · Sheffield.
- Died
- 1844. · London.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Occupation
- writer and poet.
- Languages
- English.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4858983 · wikipedia · Barbara Hofland
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Life
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, where she was briefly educated at the village's dame school. She began writing for the local paper and started a 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. 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. 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, 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, 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, Surrey. Her life by Thomas Ramsay was published in 1849.
Documentary record
Barbara Hofland, born in 1770 in Sheffield, United Kingdom and died on 9 November 1844 in Richmond, United Kingdom, is documented in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1770
Barbara Hofland was born on 1 January 1770.
1844
Barbara Hofland died on 4 November 1844.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Sheffield.
Birth place
London.
Death place
Writings
During her writing life, Hofland became a friend of the architect John Soane, who asked her to provide a description of his museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 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, 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. 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, as can The Young Crusoe (1828), and a number of others. She also wrote geographical and topographical books for teaching purposes, and a longer work in verse: A Season at Harrogate (1812). Hofland wrote a description and a poem on Whiteknights Park, the seat of the 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.
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4858983: Barbara Hofland
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
authority file
- VIAF cluster 12371361 for Barbara Hofland, aggregating national library name authorities.
General reference · OCLC
reference work
- “Barbara Hofland”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Literature
• Mary Soames; The Profligate Duke: George Spencer Churchill, Fifth Duke of Marlborough, and His Duchess (1987)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Barbara Hofland, revision 1304492275 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.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).
- 2.Poems (Sheffield: J. Montgomery, 1805).
- 3.racollection.org.uk. Royal Academy of Arts Collections - Archive.
- 4.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) Retrieved 29 July 2010
- 5.Dennis Butts, "Hofland, Barbara (bap. 1770, d. 1844)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004 Retrieved 20 December 2015, pay-walled.
- 6.Archived copy.
- 7.The Life and Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland (London, 1849).
- 8.From Enlightenment to Romanticism. Anthology II. Ed. Carmen Lavin and Ian Donachie. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.), p. 188. .
- 9.Hofland, B. Tales of the manor. 1822.
- 10.William G. Hillman. ERBzine 1892: Mrs. [Barbara] Hofland -- The Young Crusoe (1828). erbzine.com.
- 11.Internet Archive Search: creator:"Hofland, Mrs. (Barbara), 1770-1844".
- 12.A Season at Harrogate, in a series of poetical epistles, from Benjamin Blunderhead Esquire to his mother... (Knaresborough: R. Wilson, 1812).
- 13.Mary Soames: The Profligate Duke: George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, and his Duchess (London: Collins, 1987).
- 14.Mann, David. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660-1823. Indiana University Press. 1996. 0-253-33087-4.
References
Citations
References
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Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q4858983: Barbara HoflandWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessauthority file
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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