Hannah Mayor, née Hoyland was born in Dore, a village near Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on 9 January 1871 and studied at the Royal Female School of Art [which eventually became part of the Central School of Arts & Crafts] in London and at the Westminster School of Art. She subsequently returned to Yorkshire and soon joined the artists' colony in Staithes. In 1901 with the two other female artists, Laura Knight and Isa Jobling, she was a founder member of the Staithes Art Club.

At Staithes she met William Frederick (Fred) Mayor (1866–1916), one of the founder members of the Group and of the Staithes Art Club. She wished to marry him, but her father objected so in 1902 they eloped first to London and then, later that year moved to France. they married in Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais [1]. They remained in France until 1908 when they returned to England. In 1912 they moved to London. Fred Mayer died in 1916 leaving her with three children and little time to paint. She did not resume painting until after World War One.

She exhibited at Goupil Gallery, Baillie Gallery, New English Art Club, Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and at the Society of Women Artists in London.

After their return to England the Mayors lived at Whitchurch, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. They moved to 61 Earl's Court Square, London in 1912 where Hannah remained after her husband's death until the early 1930s; By 1935 she had moved to Brockham Green, Betchworth, Surrey where she remained until at least 1941; From c.1941 to 1947 she lived at South Lodge, Leigh, Surrey. She died on 2 November 1947

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[1] or in London before they moved to France. An entry on Facebook compiled by Edith Chudley (nee Mayor) and Gavin Pearce gives the location of their marriage as "a church in London", however, ancestry.com states that it was Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}