- Hannah Whitall Smith
Hannah Tatum Whitall Smith (
February 7 ,1832 –May 1 ,1911 ) was a lay speaker and author in theHoliness movement in theUnited States and theHigher Life movement in theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . She was also active in theWomen’s suffrage movement and theTemperance movement . Born inPhiladelphia , Smith was from a long line of prominent and influential Quakers inNew Jersey . Hannah Tatum Whitall was the daughter of John Mickle Whitall and Mary Tatum Whitall. Her most famous ancestor wasAnn Cooper Whitall .On
November 5 ,1851 Hannah marriedRobert Pearsall Smith , a man who also descended from a long line of prominent Quakers in the region. The Smiths settled inGermantown, Pennsylvania . The Smiths were highly influenced byMethodist revivalists. They adopted the Wesleyan doctrine ofsanctification . They were also influenced byWilliam E. Boardman , who wrote "The Higher Christian Life" (1858).From 1864 to 1868 Robert and Hannah Smith lived in
Millville, New Jersey . Robert managed Hannah’s father’s business, the Whitall, Tatum & Company glass factories.William Boardman apparently groomed Robert and Hannah Smith to join the Holiness movement as speakers. From 1873–1874 they spoke at various places in
England , includingOxford , teaching on the subjects of the "higher life" and "holiness." In 1874 Hannah helped found theWomen’s Christian Temperance Union . That same year the Smiths traveled to theGerman Empire andSwitzerland , where they preached in several major cities. In 1875, they returned to England and conducted meetings inBrighton . Due to a sexual scandal involving Robert, their visit to England came to an abrupt halt, with Hannah never becoming totally reconciled with her husband thereafter.In 1888, the Smith family moved to England because their daughter Mary married an English barrister, Frank Costelloe. They eventually divorced, and Mary then married the critic
Bernard Berenson . It was in England thatAlys Pearsall Smith met and married the philosopherBertrand Russell .Logan Pearsall Smith became an essayist and critic.Hannah Whitall Smith died in England in 1911.
Hannah Whitall Smith had seven children in all, but only three—Mary, Alys Pearsall, and Logan Pearsall—survived to adulthood. Her niece, Martha Carey Thomas was the first female dean of any college in America and an active Suffragist.
Hannah Whitall Smith’s book "The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life" (1875) is an extremely popular book of Christian principles and practical Holiness theology. It is still widely read today. She wrote her spiritual autobiography, "The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It", in 1903. Many publications of that book omit the three chapters which explain how she became a Christian universalist. [ [http://www.tentmaker.org/books/unselfishness-of-god.htm The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It (the missing chapters) ] at www.tentmaker.org]
Notes
External links
* [http://www.librarything.com/author/smithhannahwhitall LibraryThing author profile]
* [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/smith_hw/secret.i.html The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life]
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