Hannah T. King (, Tapfield; 16 March 1808 – 25 September 1886) was a 19th-century British-born American writer and pioneer. Converting to Mormonism while in England, her family emigrated to the American state of

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

in 1853 where she became endeared to the people of that state. She was the author of ''Songs of the Heart'', several poems, as well as writings addressed to young readers. King was the last woman

sealed Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

Brigham Young Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...

. She died in 1886.

Early life

Hannah Dorcas Tapfield was born 16 March 1808 in

Sawston Sawston is a large village in Cambridgeshire in England, situated on the River Cam about south of Cambridge. It has a population of 7,260. History Prehistory Although the current village of Sawston has only existed as anything more than a ha ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, England. Her parents, Mary Lawson and Peter Tapfield, were devoted members of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, with her grandfather being a

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of that church. Her early days were passed in Cambridge.

Career

England

She married Thomas Owen King Sr., a farmer, on April 6, 1824; they had 10 children. In 1850, she converted to the

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

faith, and in 1853, the family removed to the United States. Of her life and connections with Mormonism she said:— She was a literary woman and one of the personal correspondents of the English poet

Eliza Cook Eliza Cook (24 December 181823 September 1889) was an English author and poet associated with the Chartist movement. She was a proponent of political freedom for women, and believed in the ideology of self-improvement through education, some ...

. Her connection with

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church) brought her a respectability in the Cambridge Branch of the LDS Church.

Utah

King's poems suggest her love of exalted subjects and noble characters. She was enchanted with the part of Queen Isabella and the mission of Columbus. She wished that she could be an Isabella and find and fund a Columbus. Songs of the Heart (1879)

King created pieces for the Polysophical Society of Salt Lake, founded by

Eliza ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, E ...

and

Lorenzo Snow Lorenzo Snow (April 3, 1814 – October 10, 1901) was an American religious leader who served as the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1898 until his death. Snow was the last president of the L ...

, as well as other societies and the press. An admirer of the English poet Eliza Cook, King indulged her feelings mainly in that direction, publishing in 1879, ''Songs of the Heart''. The ''Juvenile Instructor'' contained many of her most sympathetic writings for children and the youth of Utah. In the pages of the ''Woman's Exponent'', her work was in a different field. ''Tullidge's Magazine'' contained her historical prose contributions. King wrote of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Columbus, Salvator Rosa and Disraeli, Napoleon and Josephine, Victoria and Elizabeth, the last of whom she somewhat resembled at times in an imperious manner, though her usual mode was one of sympathy, and her nature, one capable of enduring attachment, and unfaltering love. The women of Scripture was also a theme of hers for thought; she published a volume on this topic. In the line of poetry, she considered the "Epic" of the Gospel as her crowning work.

Personal life

She married Thomas Owen King Sr. (1800–1874) in 1824, and they came to Utah in 1853 with Claudius V. Spencer Company. Of their ten children, only four survived into adulthood: Georgina (b. 1830), Louisa (b. 1833), Bertha Mary, Thomas Owen, Jr. (b. 1840). As her husband was not a member of the LDS Church which held that she could only secure salvation through sealing with a "righteous man", this occurred in 1872 with Brigham Young. Two years later, after the death of Thomas, whom King had continued to live with, Young sent a gift to King of flour, cornmeal, flour, sago and sugar. She had been pleased to sit beside and dance with Young in 1856, but the sealing was an intention for a life together after death. She died in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

on 25 September 1886.

Selected works

* ''Essay on young women's manners'', c. 1835 * ''Sabbath musings'', ca. 1837 * ''Proceedings in mass meeting of the ladies of Salt Lake City : to protest against the passage of Cullom's Bill, January 14, 1870.'', 1870, with Bathsheba W Bigler Smith; Eliza R Snow; Harriet Cook Young; Phoebe Woodruff * ''The women of the scriptures'', 1878 * ''Songs of the Heart'', 1879 * ''Hannah T. King brief memoir of the early Mormon life of ... : Salt Lake City : ms. S, 1880.'' * ''Letter to a friend'', 1881 * ''An epic poem : a synopsis of the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, from the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the arrival on the spot which the prophet Brigham Young pronounced to be the site of the future Salt Lake City'' * ''The journals of Hannah Tapfield King''

References

Attribution

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Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Hannah T. 1808 births 1886 deaths 19th-century English poets 19th-century English women writers 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers People from Sawston Converts to Mormonism from Anglicanism Latter Day Saints from Utah English Latter Day Saint writers American women poets Mormon pioneers English letter writers Women letter writers Wives of Brigham Young