¹ More, Hannah to Newton, J., 1794, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More, ed. Roberts, William (New York: Harper & Bros., 1836), 1:457Google Scholar.

² Walpole, H. to More, , January 24, 1795, Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. Mrs.Toynbee, Paget (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905), 15:336Google Scholar.

³ Jones, M. G., Hannah More (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), p. 138Google Scholar.

⁴ Ibid.; Meacham, Standish, Henry Thornton of Clapham (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964), p. 133Google Scholar.

⁵ Mrs.Montague, Elizabeth to Mrs.Carter, , 1795, Mrs. Montague, “Queen of the Blues”: Her Letters and Friendships, ed. Blunt, Reginald (London: Constable & Co., 1923), 2:317Google Scholar; Mrs. Boscawen to More, 1795, Roberts, ed., 1:467; More to her sister, 1795, ibid., 1:458; More to Z. Macaulay, January 6, 1796, ibid., 1:473.

⁶ Jones, p. 139.

⁷ Circulation figures are discussed in more detail in the third section below. However, the most complete discussion of publication and distribution remains Spinney, G. H., “Cheap Repository Tracts: Hazard and Marshall Edition,” Library, 4th ser., 20, no. 3 (December 1939): 295–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I have also relied on Spinney's invaluable bibliography of the early editions of the tracts in my own search.

⁸ Thompson, Henry, Life of Hannah More (London: T. Cadell, 1838), p. 158Google Scholar; Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage Books, 1966), pp. 141–42Google Scholar.

⁹ Hammond, J. L. and Hammond, Barbara, The Town Labourer (London: Longmans, Green, 1928), vol. 2Google Scholar, chap. 9. E. P. Thompson has also pointed out the contribution of evangelical doctrines of the importance of husbanding time to the construction of a new “work discipline” (“Time, Work Discipline and Industrial Capitalism,” Past and Present, no. 38 [December 1967], pp. 56–97Google Scholar).

¹⁰ Ford K. Brown has provided the best discussion of the content of the Cheap Repository tracts, although he is torn between admiration for More's skill and disgust at her reprehensible social message (Fathers of the Victorians [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961], pp. 123–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Quinlan, Maurice, Victorian Prelude: A History of English Manners [Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965], pp. 83–89Google Scholar; Jones, pp. 125–50).

¹¹ Albert Goodwin attributes the rapid development of the English radical movement in the 1790s to both the spread of Painite doctrines and the rise of a radical periodical press in the provinces (The Friends of Liberty [London: Hutchinson, 1979], pp. 220–33Google Scholar). Paine's own Age of Reason, the second part of the Rights of Man, had sold 200,000 copies by 1793 and 1.5 million by 1809 (Altick, Richard, The English Common Reader [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957], p. 70Google Scholar).

¹² More, Hannah, Village Politics. By Will Chip. A Country Carpenter (London, 1793)Google Scholar; [More, Hannah], “The Riot; or, Half a Loaf is better than no Bread,” in Cheap Repository Shorter Tracts (hereafter cited as CRST) (London: Rivington, Evans & Hatchard; Bath: Hazard, 1798), pp. 430–33Google Scholar. ”The Loyal Sailor; or, no Mutineering,” in CRST, pp. 419–26. Montague to Carter, Blunt, ed., 2:317.

¹³ [More, Hannah], “Turn the Carpet; or, the Two Weavers,” in CRST, pp. 450–52Google Scholar; More to her sister, 1795, Roberts, ed., 1:459.

¹⁴ Jones, p. 140.

¹⁵ Hannah More, “Plan for Establishing a Repository of Cheap Publications…,” quoted in Neuburg, Victor, Popular Literature (London: Woburn Press, 1977), p. 255Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Bishop Porteus to More, 1795, Roberts, 1:470.

¹⁷ On the place of the evangelicals within a tradition of English moral reform organizations, see Quinlan. Peter Burke provides a general account of the attempt by elites throughout Europe to reform popular culture during the Reformation and early modern periods in Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York: New York University Press, 1978), esp. pp. 207–43Google Scholar. Victor Neuburg discusses the Cheap Repository tracts as part of an evolution of tract literature in an app. (pp. 249–64).

¹⁸ [More, Sarah], “The Cheapside Apprentice,” in CRST, pp. 1–19Google Scholar.

¹⁹ [Hannah More], “The Lancashire Collier Girl,” in ibid., pp. 20–31.

²⁰ [Hannah More], “The Two Soldiers,” in ibid., pp. 191–208.

²¹ “The Hampshire Tragedy,” in ibid., pp. 410–13.

²² [Hannah More], “Betty Brown, the St. Giles's Orange Girl,” in ibid., pp. 112–13.

²³ “The History of Charles Jones, the Footman, Written by Himself,” in ibid., p. 151.

²⁴ [Hannah More], “Black Giles, The Poacher,” in ibid., pp. 59–94; More, Hannah, “The Two Shoemakers. Pt. 4. Jack Brown in Prison,” in More, Hannah, The Works of Hannah More (London: T. Cadell, 1830), 3:496–514 (hereafter cited as Works)Google Scholar.

²⁵ “The History of Mary Wood, the Housemaid,” in CRST, pp. 168–90; [More, Sarah], “The Cheapside Apprentice,” p. 2Google Scholar.

²⁶ More, Hannah, “The Two Wealthy Farmers. Pt. 5. The Golden Lion,” in Works, 3:205Google Scholar.

²⁷ “The Story of Poor Tricket, the Gamester,” in CRST, p. 255.

²⁸ “The History of Charles Jones …,” p. 153.

²⁹ More, Hannah, “The Sunday School,” in Works, 3:304–8Google Scholar.

³⁰ Ibid., p. 302.

³¹ [More, Hannah], “Tawney Rachel,” in CRST, p. 110Google Scholar.

³² See esp. “The Carpenter; Or, the Danger of Evil Company,” in ibid., pp. 373–78; “Robert and Richard; Or, the Ghost of Poor Molly,” in ibid., pp. 370–73; “The Gin-Shop; Or, A Peep into a Prison,” in ibid., pp. 389–93.

³³ [Sarah More], “Sorrowful Sam; Or, the Two Blacksmiths,” in ibid., pp. 209–30.

³⁴ “The Carpenter,” p. 376.

³⁵ “The History of Charles Jones …,” p. 158.

³⁶ [More, Sarah], “The Story of Sinful Sally, told by herself,” in CRST, p. 382Google Scholar.

³⁷ (Sarah More], “The History of Diligent Dick, or Truth will out though it be hid in a Well,” in ibid., p. 293.

³⁸ The importance of the evangelicals in the creation of the Victorian ideology of domesticity has been explored by Hall, Catherine (“The Early Formation of Victorian Domestic Ideology,” in Fit Work for Women, ed. Burman, Sandra (London: Croom Helm, 1979], pp. 15–32Google Scholar). As she points out, the members of the Clapham Sect themselves set the model for domestic life, and the Thorntons, Wilberforces, and Venns lived much like an extended family. Yet despite More's strictures against sociability, the Claphamites were exceedingly neighborly. (In addition to Hall, see Meacham [n. 4 above]; Howse, Ernest M., Saints in Politics [Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1952], pp. 168–71Google Scholar; and Forster's, E. M. “domestic biography” of his great-aunt, Marianne Thornton [New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1956].Google Scholar)

³⁹ “The Explanation of the Ten Commandments,” pt. 2, Cheap Repository Tracts: Entertaining, Moral and Religious. By Hannah More and Others, rev. ed. (New York: American Tract Society, n.d.), 4:145–46Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ More, Hannah, “The History of Tom White, the Post-Boy,” in Works, 4:13Google Scholar.

⁴¹ “The History of Charles Jones …,” p. 166.

⁴² [Hannah More], “The Shopkeeper turned Sailor,” pt. 2, Cheap Repository Tracts: Entertaining, Moral and Religious (London: Rivington, Evans, Hatchard; Bath: Hazard, 1798), p. 435Google Scholar.

⁴³ “The Old Man, his Children and the Bundle of Sticks,” in CRST, pp. 465–68.

⁴⁴ In their essential recommendations, the tracts do not deviate from Babington's classic text on evangelical child rearing (see Babington, Thomas, A Practical View of Christian Education [Hartford, Conn.: Cooke & Co., 1831])Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ [More, Sarah], “Sorrowful Sam” (n. 33 above), p. 210Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Watts, Isaac, Divine Songs attempted in easy Language for the use of Children (London: W. & I. Simpson, 1778), p. 7Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ “The Execution of Wild Robert, being a Warning to all Parents,” in CRST, p. 397.

⁴⁸ [More, Hannah], “The History of Mr. Fantom the New-fashioned Philosopher, and his man William,” in Cheap Repository Tracts (New York ed.), 2:5–37Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ More, Hannah, “The Two Shoemakers. Pt. 5. A Dialogue between James Stock and Will Simpson, the Shoemakers, as they sat at work, on the Duty of Carrying Religion into our Common Business,” in Works, 3:521Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ “The Two Shoemakers. Pt. 6, Dialogue the Second—On the Duty of carrying Religion into our Amusements,” in ibid., p. 530.

⁵¹ “The Two Shoemakers. Pt. 5,” p. 520.

⁵² More, Hannah, “The True Heroes, or the Noble Army of Martyrs,” in Works, 2:51Google Scholar.

⁵³ Hannah More, “The Two Wealthy Farmers. Pt. 4. The Subject of Prayer Discussed in a Morning's Ride,” in ibid., 3:179.

⁵⁴ [More, Hannah], “Patient Joe; Or, the Newcastle Collier,” in CRST, p. 387Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ [More, Sarah], “Sorrowful Sam” (n. 33 above), pp. 212–13Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ [More, Hannah], “Bear ye one another's Burthens; or, the Valley of Tears. A Vision,” in CRST, pp. 304–12Google Scholar; [More, Hannah], “The Strait Gate and the Broad Way,” in CRST, pp. 313–29Google Scholar; More, Hannah, “The Grand Assizes; or, General Gaol Delivery,” in Works, 4:74–84Google Scholar; [More, Hannah], “The Pilgrims. An Allegory,” in Cheap Repository Tracts (London ed.), pp. 389–406Google Scholar; More, Hannah, “The Two Wealthy Farmers. Pt. 7. Mrs. Incle's Story,” in Works, 3:241–42Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ More, diary entry, January 1, 1798, Roberts, ed. (n. 1 above), 2:30.

⁵⁸ The best treatment of English seventeenth-century chapbook literature is Spufford, Margaret, Small Books and Pleasant Histories (London: Methuen & Co., 1981)Google Scholar. Victor Neuburg has written widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century popular literature; for eighteenth-century chapbooks, see esp. Chapbooks: A Bibliography of References to English and American Chapbook Literature of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (London: Vine Press, 1964)Google Scholar, The Penny Histories: A Study of Chapbooks for Young Readers over Two Centuries (London: Oxford University Press, 1968)Google Scholar, and Popular Literature (n. 15 above), pp. 102–23.

⁵⁹ Porteus to More, 1794, Roberts, ed., 1:436.

⁶⁰ Neuburg, , Chapbooks, pp. 15–30Google Scholar. Harry B. Weiss found that one collection of chapbooks from 1785 to 1830 was drawn from over eighty London firms (A Book about Chapbooks [Trenton, N.J.: Edward Bros., 1942], pp. 6–7Google Scholar).

⁶¹ Neuburg, , Chapbooks, pp. 9–10Google Scholar, and The Penny Histories, pp. 26–29.

⁶² Mayhew, Henry, London Labour and the London Poor (New York: Harper & Bros., 1851), 1:224Google Scholar.

⁶³ Spufford, pp. 115–16.

⁶⁴ Ibid., chap. 5, esp. p. 119.

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 2; Capp, Bernard, Astrology and the Popular Press, 1500–1800 (London: Faber & Faber, 1979), pp. 281–83Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ Spufford, p. 2; Neuburg, , Popular Literature, pp. 103–7Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Schofield, R. S., “The Measurement of Literacy in Pre-industrial England,” in Literacy in Traditional Societies, ed. Goody, J. R. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 313Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Spufford, chap. 2, esp. pp. 22, 32.

⁶⁹ Sanderson, Michael, “Literacy and Social Mobility in the Industrial Revolution in England,” Past and Present, no. 56 (August 1972), p. 83Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ The estimate is from Jones, M. G., The Charity School Movement (London: Frank Cass, 1964), p. 26Google Scholar. The information on the decline of literacy is from Sanderson, pp. 75–83.

⁷¹ Stone, Lawrence, “Literacy and Education in England, 1650–1900,” Past and Present, no. 42 (February 1969), pp. 108–10Google Scholar.

⁷² In the following summary, I have adhered to the categories established by the 1905 catalogers. Although the catalog does list some American chapbooks, the overwhelming majority are English, and those of the Boswell collection, which number over 1,000, are entirely so. (See Catalogue of English and American Chapbooks and Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library, ed. Tillinghast, W. H. and Welsh, Charles, Harvard College Library Bibliographical Contributions, no. 56 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Library, 1905].Google Scholar)

⁷³ The Thackeray list is published in Spufford, pp. 262–67; the Dicey and Marshall list is in Neuburg, , Chapbooks (n. 58 above), pp. 37–42Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ The History of Valentine and Orson (London, n.d.), Boswell Collection of Chapbooks (hereafter cited as Boswell), Houghton Library, Harvard University, vol. 24, no. 2. For a version of this and a number of other chapbooks, see the compilation Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, ed. Ashton, John (1882; reprint, New York: Benjamin Bloom, 1966)Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ The History of Jack and the Giants (London, n. d.), Boswell, vol. 32, no. 8Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ The History of Sir R. Whittington and His Cat (London, n. d.), ibid., vol. 39, no. 8; Spufford, p. 147.

⁷⁷ The History of Robin Hood (London, n. d.), Boswell, vol. 32, no. 11Google Scholar; The History of the King and the Cobbler (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 55, no. 4.

⁷⁸ Joe Miller's Jests Improved (London, 1787), p. 21, ibid., vol. 9, no. 16; see also Joe Miller's Jests (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 30, no. 7.

⁷⁹ The Crafty Chambermaid (n.p., n.d.), ibid., vol. 8, no. 28.

⁸⁰ Innocence Betrayed … (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 14, no. 6.

⁸¹ Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open; Containing Rare Secrets of Art and Nature … (London, n.d.), p. 21, ibid., vol. 48, no. 4.

⁸² The True Egyptian Fortune Teller (London, n. d.), ibid., vol. 21, no. 14.

⁸³ The History of Mother Shipton (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 55, no. 7; Nixon's Cheshire Prophecy (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 35, no. 9.

⁸⁴ The History of the Lancashire Witches (Wotton-Under-Edge, n.d.), ibid., vol. 38, no. 4.

⁸⁵ The Witch of the Woodlands (London, n.d.), p. 14, ibid., vol. 34, no. 1.

⁸⁶ See, e.g., The History of Fortunatus (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 21, no. 8; “The History of Thomas Hickathrift,” in Ashton, , ed. (n. 74 above), pp. 194–206Google Scholar; The History of Jack of Newbury (London, n.d.), Boswell, vol. 50, no. 1Google Scholar; The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 42, no. 7.

⁸⁷ The Misfortunes of Simple Simon (London, n.d.), p. 24, Boswell, vol. 47, no. 6Google Scholar.

⁸⁸ The Art of Courtship (Glasgow, [176–?]), p. 6, ibid., vol. 8, no. 6.

⁸⁹ The Academy of Compliments (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 21, no. 6.

⁹⁰ The Merry Frolics: Or, the Comical Cheats of Swalpo, a Notorious Pick-Pocket: And the Merry Pranks of Jack the Clown (Darlington, 1788), ibid., vol. 37, no. 12.

⁹¹ An Explanation of the Vices of the Age … (Glasgow, 1792), ibid., vol. 8, no. 4.

⁹² The cupboard door broke open; or Joyful news for apprentices (Glasgow, 1790), ibid., vol. 8, no. 12; The English Lady's catechism (London, n.d.), ibid., vol. 4, no. 26.

⁹³ Compare Spufford (n. 58 above), pp. 130, 262–67, with Neuberg, , Chapbooks (n. 58 above), pp. 37–41Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ Neuburg, , Chapbooks, pp. 41–42Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ Spufford, p. 249.

⁹⁶ Robert Darnton has argued that French popular tales provide a “program for survival, not a fantasy of escape,” reflecting the grim realities of everyday peasant life and offering a strategy for coping. However, Damton concedes that English folktales present a happier and more fantastical world and often require little more from their heroes than a sort of blustering good humor. It is, therefore, difficult to derive “lessons” from English chapbooks, and I would argue, with Spufford, that this is not their purpose. See Darnton, Robert, “Peasants Tell Tales,” in The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Vintage Books, 1985), pp. 9–72Google Scholar. Peter Burke's account of popular attitudes toward various social groups also relies on a comparative reading of chapbooks (see Burke [n. 17 above], chap. 6, pp. 149–77).

⁹⁷ This survey of popular literature amply supports E. P. Thompson's contention that eighteenth-century popular culture “was remarkably robust, greatly distanced from the polite culture, and … no longer acknowledged, except in perfunctory ways, the hegemony of the Church” (see “Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture,” Journal of Social History 7, no. 4 [Summer 1974]: 397)Google Scholar.

⁹⁸ Porteus to More, 1794, Roberts, ed. (n. 1 above), 1:457.

⁹⁹ “The wonderful Advantages of adventuring in the Lottery!!!” in CRST, pp. 256–73; More, Hannah, “The Two Shoemakers. Part 3. Some Account of the Frolics of idle Jack Brown,” in Works, 3:476–96Google Scholar; Mr.Fielding, Justice, “Murders. True examples of the interposition of Providence in the discovery and punishment of murder” (London, 1795), cited in Spinney (n. 7 above), p. 316Google Scholar. See Goldgar, Anne, “Cheap Repository Tracts and the Chapbook Tradition” (Harvard University, Department of History, 1982, typescript)Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ [More, Hannah], “The Shopkeeper turned Sailor; or, the Folly of going out of our Element,” in Cheap Repository Tracts (London ed.), pp. 430–50Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ Thompson, E. P., “Eighteenth-Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class?” Social History 3, no. 2 (May 1978): 133–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰² Bailey, Peter, Leisure and Class in Victorian England (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 170Google Scholar.

¹⁰³ Ibid., pp. 171, 176. The extent to which the working class adopted the standards of respectability put forward by More and others is too large a question to address here, although it is of major importance for the study of nineteenth-century moral reform movements. Certainly there was not a wholesale rejection, and many early nineteenth-century campaigns against popular recreations were supported by “respectable” artisans and better-off workers. For one excellent case study, see Delves, Anthony, “Popular Recreation and Social Conflict in Derby, 1800–1850,” in Popular Culture and Class Conflict, 1590–1914, ed. Yeo, Eileen and Yeo, Stephen (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1981), pp. 89–127Google Scholar. Nevertheless, Peter Bailey has cautioned us against assuming that the adoption of some “respectable” behaviors meant the adoption of all: regularity and sobriety at work could coexist with an involvement in popular recreations frowned on by middle-class ideology. Compliance with bourgeois norms was selective: if few working-class individuals could afford to ignore these requirements altogether, many maintained a concomitant affinity with a working-class culture that remained remarkably vital and self-contained. (See Bailey, Peter, “‘Will the Real Bill Banks Please Stand Up?’ Towards a Role Analysis of Mid-Victorian Working-Class Respectability,” Journal of Social History 12, no. 3 [Spring 1979]: 336–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.)

¹⁰⁴ The ability of the evangelicals to exploit their political loyalism to further their reforming aims has been stressed by Quinlan (n. 10 above); see also Newman, Gerald, “Anti-French Propaganda and British Liberal Nationalism in the Early Nineteenth Century,” Victorian Studies 18, no. 4 (June 1975): 397, 401–2Google Scholar; Spring, David, “The Clapham Sect: Some Social and Political Aspects,” Victorian Studies 5, no. 1 (September 1961): 35–48Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁵ More to Macaulay, January 6, 1796, Roberts, ed., 1:473; More to Newton, 1794, ibid., 1:457.

¹⁰⁶ More to Macaulay, January 6, 1796, ibid., pp. 472–73.

¹⁰⁷ On the changes in popular reading matter, see Webb, R. K., The British Working-Class Reader (1955; reprint, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1971), p. 30Google Scholar; Harrison, J. F. C., Learning and Living, 1790–1960 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961), pp. 27–37Google Scholar; Neuburg, , The Penny Histories (n. 58 above), pp. 59–64Google Scholar, and Chapbooks (n. 58 above), pp. 4–5.

¹⁰⁸ Neuberg has stated that there is some evidence that chapbooks were in decline by the late eighteenth century (Popular Literature [n. 15 above], p. 121–22). On Victorian street literature, see Neuburg, Victor, “The Literature of the Streets,” in The Victorian City, ed. Dyos, H. J. and Wolff, Michael, 2 vols. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973), 1:191–209Google Scholar, and Popular Literature, pp. 123–234.

¹⁰⁹ Mayhew (n. 62 above), p. 218.

¹¹⁰ Neuburg, , “The Literature of the Streets,” pp. 206–7Google Scholar.

¹¹¹ Mayhew, p. 226.

¹¹² Ibid., p. 241. Mayhew found that old ballads still sold in the city as well, although they were more popular in the country (pp. 283–85).

¹¹³ Porteus to More, October 9, 1795, Roberts, ed. (n. 1 above), 1:471.

¹¹⁴ Porteus to More, January 16, 1797, ibid., 2:4.

₁₁₅ More to William Wilberforce, 1797, ibid., 1:466.

¹¹⁶ Spinney (n. 7 above), pp. 301–2; More, diary entry, September 22, 1798, Roberts, ed., 2:34.

¹¹⁷ Spinney, pp. 309–10.

¹¹⁸ More to Macaulay, January 6, 1796, Roberts, ed., 1:473.

¹¹⁹ Spinney, pp. 306–9; Jones, , Hannah More (n. 3 above), pp. 143–44Google Scholar. Within the Harvard chapbook collection there is also a copy of the Repository tract “The History of Charles Jones …,” printed by a non-Repository printer, suggesting that the more successful tracts were pirated and reprinted in the same manner as chapbooks. The tracts were also issued in bound volumes in 1798 and 1821 and published in America both by independent printers between 1797 and 1800 and, later, by the American Tract Society. For the future of the tracts in the United States, see Weiss, Harry B., “Hannah More's Cheap Repository Tracts in America, Parts 1, 2,” Bulletin of the New York Public Library 50, no. 7 (July 1946): 539–49Google Scholar; 50, no. 8 (August 1946): 634–41.