Quaker who had half a hope for a hearty dinner? (4)
I believe the answer is:
penn
'quaker who' is the definition.
'penn' can be an answer for 'quaker' (Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania William Penn). I am unsure of the remainder of the definition.
'half a hope for a hearty dinner?' is the wordplay.
'half a' means to take half the letters.
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a hearty dinner?' becomes 'nn' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hope' with half the letters taken is 'pe'.
'pe'+'nn'='PENN'
'had' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for penn that I've seen before include "William ---, Quaker colonist" , "William --, founder of a US state" , "Colonising Quaker" , "founder of colony" , "US state (abbrev.)" .)