Hannah Kilham

Hannah Kilham (1774–1832) née Spurr was an English Methodist and Quaker, known as a missionary and linguist active in West Africa. She was also a teacher and philanthropic activist in England and Ireland.

Early life She was born at Sheffield on 12 August 1774, the seventh child of Peter and Hannah Spurr, in trade there. Brought up in the Church of England, she was permitted to attend John Wesley's early morning services. Her mother's death when she was twelve (1786) had placed her at the head of the household, which consisted of her father and five brothers. Two years later her father died, and she was sent to a boarding-school at Chesterfield. At the age of 20 she joined the Wesleyans.

On 12 April 1798 Hannah Spurr became the second wife of Alexander Kilham, founder of the Methodist New Connexion, who died at Nottingham eight months later (20 December 1798). Hannah Kilham opened a day-school in Nottingham, spending her vacations at Epworth, her husband's early home. There she became acquainted with Quakers, and in 1802 joined the Society of Friends.

Activist and missionary In Sheffield, while still teaching, Kilham became involved in philanthropic work. She started a Society for the Bettering of the Condition of the Poor, which was imitated elsewhere. The committee, on which William Allen and Luke Howard sat, as a preliminary sent William Singleton to West Africa.

First African visit In October 1823, under the auspices of the Friends' committee for promoting African instruction, she sailed with three Quaker missionaries and the two African sailors for St. Mary's, in the Gambia. Here she started a school, using her knowledge of Wolof. She taught also at Sierra Leone.

In July 1824 she returned to England to report to the committee of Friends.

Kilham then went to Ireland, and spent some months with the British and Irish Ladies' Society for famine relief. An edition of some of Hannah Kilham's works was republished as Writings on Education in West Africa (2010).