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'm not certain of the remainder of the definition.
'half a hope for a hearty dinner?' is the wordplay.
'half a' indicates taking half.
'for' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a hearty dinner?' becomes 'nn' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hope' with half the letters taken is 'pe'.
'pe'+'nn'='PENN'
'had' acts as a 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.)" .)