Hocking , Silas Kitto , 1850-1935 , novelist and United Methodist minister

Silas Kitto Hocking was born in Cornwall in 1850, and educated locally. He was ordained as a minister in the United Methodist Free Church in 1870 and subsequently held pastorates in various parts of England and Wales. Hocking's first novel was published in 1878 and he subsequently wrote several other books for children and adults, the best known being Her Benny (1880). He resigned from the ministry in 1896 to concentrate on writing and Liberal politics. His younger brother, Joseph Hocking, was also a novelist and minister.