Hannah More was an important writer on a range of subjects including female education. She was an Evangelical believer in Christianity and strongly believed in the importance of action in the face of social injustice. Much of what she publicly believed in including her support for the abolition of slavery and the importance of female education as a means of producing good wives, mothers and moral role models for the rest of society resonated with the beliefs of the Herschels and Margaret Brodie Herschel in particular. Though there is no evidence that Hannah More was a friend of the family, there is evidence that much of what she stood for was central to the Herschels views on religion and education.

The original Pickersgill portrait of 1822 and a similar copy of this print are both held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.