Worcester Theatre Royal and all its circuit

A fascinating little group of old playbills from the Theatre Royal in Worcester.   

 There had been theatrical performances at Mr James Augustus Whitley's (d Wolverhampton 14 September 1781) playhouse in Angel Street in Worcester since the 18th century, but it was only in the nineteenth that the building was granted the right to call itself the 'Theatre Royal'. I see a Mr Powell credited at some stage as 'manager'

In the period covered by these bills, the little (900 plus seater) house was run by only two managers: John Crisp (b 1776; d Lozells Rd, Aston 25 November 1841) and, for many years, Henry Bennett (b Bath 1792; d College Street, Worcester 5 September 1868). 

Theatres, at this time, did not run the year long. In fact, they were closed more often. The manager would open for Occasions, such as Race Week, which brought the Quality to town, or the local Assizes, which brought different Quality, but otherwise for 'a season' or, if he were on a good thing 'seasons' with a resident stock company. And a supply of 'guest stars', usually for the odd night or three . When local support and/or the performers repertoire looked as if they had had enough, a good manager went on a Circuit. 

John Crisp also had, at various times, the management of theatres at Shrewsbury, Hereford, Coventry, Chester, Cheltenham .. and his actors hied thither, sometimes for a number of years in a row, while Worcester's dressing rooms were closed or, in some cases, rented out to amdrams or concerts, or even to another manager (Elliston took the house for a season in 1815). Bennett continued, in the same style, for nigh on thirty years. By the time that he retired, in 1851, the old system was well on its way out, and the era of touring comanies was beginning.

So, we have two bills here from the Crisp era. Easter Tuesday, 24 March 1818. Some of the names mean nothing to me, but some others than Crisp do -- Mr and Mrs Gallott, Henry Kemble, Mrs Chambers .. 

John GALLOTT (b 1790; d Brompton, 12 December 1860) had a career of some thirty yeears, partly in the company of his wife Ann Eliza née WOODS. I see him first in Oxford from 1807, (where Tom Wrench was sometime of the company) and them in 1815, before they moved into Crisp's orbit at Chester and Worcester. In late 1818 they were engaged at London'd Coburg Theatre, where Gallott took good roles, then to Sadler's Wells where he assumed the post of stage manager, then to the Haymarket (with a trip to Dublin the direct the pantomime. In 1828, he moved to the Adelphi where he played in such pieces as Nelson, or the Life of a Sailor, Paris in London, A New Don Juan, the title-role in The Pilot, The Earthquake, or the Spectre of the Nile and as Korassan, the usurper, in The Elephant of Siam, or the Fire Fiend, allegedly penned by at least partly himself. Mrs G played a Siamese lady. He obviously got on well with the elephant, for in 1831 he accompanied it and the show to America. He is still to be seen in the London theatres in the 1830s and 1840s 'the evergreen Mr Gallott'. 

The other standout name, for me, in Mrs [Harriet] CHAMBERS née DYER, formerly TAPLIN. She played for half a century on the stages of England, and was regarded as a close follower to Mrs Glover as a player of 'old women'. 

I researched Harriet deeply, and then discovered that someone else had gone there before me. The amazing Mr PV Highfill. Alas, his multi-volumed biographical dictionary is beyond a pensioner's means, so I shall have to write to my rich friend Betsy in  California and get her to scan me the relevant bit. Meanwhile, the bones of his article have been shared on the www along with a wonderful oiece of ephemera: a playscript annotated by the ladt

The inscription dates from rather later than the publication, for Harriet was not 'Chambers' for another fifteen years.

So, Harriet DYER born to Michael Dyer and Harriet Bullock, both performers, around 1750?  Must have gone on the stage early, for she married an actor named William Taplin 27 February 1771. I see them together in 1776 at Manchester where a prominent colleague was one James Kennedy. And Mrs Taplin 'ran off' with Mr Kennedy. He didn't last long, as Harriet moved on to Dublin and Leeds, to Stamford and to Barnsley, where she met and married (October 1779) John Chapman. Another actor. But the third time paid all. The couple stayed together until they vanish into the starlight somewhere thirty years later.

Through the 1790s and 1800s, I see them -- mostly together -- Sheffield, Newcastle, Ipswich, Hereford, Canterbury, Birmingham, Manchester, Chester, Omagh (!), more Hereford, Cheltenham and Chester, where Harriet is now dubbed 'of Drury Lane', through the 1810s and into the 1820s ... where I lose them.

Edward SHUTER (b c 1788; d Manchester 5 November 1836) was another longtime habitué of the provincial circuits. I wonder if he is the Master Shuter who appeared with his parents at Hereford as early as 1791? Bit young. I think it must be his brother George jr. George Shuter (sr) married Susannah Powell, Cheltenham 1783?  In 1800, Mrs Shuter 'and her children' are at Wolverhampton. Miss E Shuter and Miss F Shuter and Mr E Shuter appear at Hereford together in 1812. So I guess that's them.

I spot what I assume is him at Hereford (1807, 1815, 1819), Shrewsbury (1809), Cheltenham (1811, 1812, 1813) and for three seasons at Liverpool in comic roles, then in Chester in 1817 with ?mother,  Crisp, Gallott, Mrs Chambers et al .. Occasionally it is tricky to identify which Mr and Mrs Shuter is referred to .. 

Cassup, Shuter, Aylmer, Masterman ...

'Died Birmingham, Mrs Shuter, mother of Mr George Shuter, late of our (Hereford) Theatre' 1823.  OK, father is George  Elizabeth Shuter born to George and Susannah at Cheltenham 1793? George 1783? Richard at Worcester in 1800 .... ah died George Shuter, comedian, aged 54 in the Tottenham Court Rd 5 November 1837. 54? That's surely a brother. Oh, these theatrical dynasties! 

Edward Shuter married Charlotte Pitt 1825. Could be he. The Pitt family worked alongside the Shuters ...  sigh. I'm stabbing running water ...

I reckon I've mucked this one up. 

The Mr VINING here, is Henry [Phillip Tayleure] VINING (1794-1855) who married Amelia QUANTRILL also of the theatre, daughter of William QUANTRILL of the cricuit (d Cheltenham 31 March 1825). He can be seen in the 1841 census 'comedian' with wife, mother-in-law, and daughters Amelia and Matilda ... oh lawks!  Matilda grew up to be the celebrated Mrs John Wood!  Talk about dynasties!

Several of the actors had short lives ...

Thomas AYLMER (b 1799; d Atherstone 17 May 1828)

and John Reynolds CASSUP (b Bristol 25 June 1804; d Loughborough 6 September 1832

did not reach their thirtieth birthday ... I see Cassup at Shrewsbury in 1828 .. Aylmer at Retford in 1822 

The Mr H Kemble on the Bennett bills is Henry Stephen KEMBLE (b 15 September 1789; d 22 June 1836) son of Stephen Kemble and nephew to the celebrated John Philip Kemble, who acted in tandem with Mrs Siddons in 1767. His wife was Mary née FREESE.  While his father had the reins 1818-9 at Drury Lane he was given good roles there, but thereafter he was largely employed at the Coburg, the Surrey or in the provinces.

The multiplication of names make deciphering these C19th bills very difficult. But I thought I'd try an easy one today. Mr Spray. The leader of the Worcester Theatre orchestra. And he's followed by a Mr Spray jr. Obviously a son. It seems not. After a day of delving, I've discovered that this Mr Spray was a Scot, by name William Henry SPRAY. Born, it seems, somewhere near Dumfries in 1789. I think the Sprays might have crossed the border quite early, for I see what I presume is he leading the band at Hereford in 1816. I presume, because, guess what, he had a brother (?), Frederick (b c 1786; d Leicester 14 March 1864) who also professed music ... 

Anyway, Fred's children claim birth in Boston, Lincs, but the whole lot seem to have ended up in 11 the Tything, Claines, Worcestershire. Alas the censi only begin in 1841, but there are bits of Spray there then .. and then WH (d 27 September 1850) and his wife Jane née Macfarlane (d 1853) died ... and we have Fred jr, Sarah and  Rachel ..

Fred jr (b 1823) would even outdo his ?uncle. He was the big man in Worcester musical circles for two decades. Conductor of the Harmonic Society, the Festival Choral Society, the Philharmonic Society ... 

Sister Rachel became Mrs John Stanyon and died at 28, sister Sarah became tardily Mrs George Goodwin .. and I think the family historians (and newspapers) have done their usual muddling.

So, the Miss Spray dancing at the Worcester Theatre in 1827 (and at Stamford in 1834) is ...?

My biggest disappointment in researching these bills is my failure to identify firmly Mr and Mrs Denning. Not with proof, anyway. The first bit of data I discovered was a tiny squib in a provincial paper saying that he had died in Birmingham in 1821. 'Mr Denning'. Always just 'Mr Denning'. He'd only been on the stage for about eight years. But in those eight years he had won splendid plaudits and been seen -- in between engagements at Crisp's theatres (Cheltenham, Chester, Hereford, Worcester)-- at both the Haymarket (as Anthony Absolute to his wife's Julia)  and more significantly at Covent Garden in 1817-8. 

While at Covent Garden, he played a role á tiroirs in a piece named Thee Miles from Paris, and such was his success that he won comparisons with Charles Mathews and had his likeness, in the role, engraved for the Theatrical Inquisitor. 'Mr Denning'. 

Now, this engraving has found its way into several libraries, where it is catalogued as 'Thomas Denning'. I wonder how they knew that. So I looked for a Thomas Denning dying in Birmingham on 9 September 1821. There wasn't one. Yes, he and his wife were playing a season at Birmingham when he was taken ill in November 1820 .. but ...  Well, I suspect that he went home to die. A Thomas Denning died back in Newington (where he was born) aged just 31 ...    

Which means he was just 22 when he stepped on to the stage at Cheltenham in July 1812 with a comic song and dancing a pas de deux with one of the Mr Chuters. The programme also included Mrs Denning. Who was she ...? She, too, turns up at Cheltenham in 1812, playing Young Douglas to the Alice of ... Miss Feron!  She is there until that last season in Birmingham ..  and, whoever she was, then disappears from my ken. 

It's getting thin. Mr Mason apparently was a Cheltonian. A Mrs Cuffley née Sternberg turns up in Northampton 20 years later ... I see Mr (and Mrs) Thornhill at Chester in 1806 labelled 'of Liverpool' ... most of the minor performers limited their careers, such as they were, to the circuits. Ah! here's one that made the news!  Miss Hart.

There were clearly several Miss Harts around in these years. There was one dancing in London c1815-9. Then there was one who arrived at Chester under Crisp in 1819. Is this she? There is one getting ghastly reviews at Norwich and Cambridge, and one at Stamford 'from the TR Birmingham' ... which one? Fast forward to 1838. Miss Caroline Mary Ann Hart, only daughter of George Hart, and living in College Yard (hang on, that's Henry Bennett land) married Henry Nash, a Cheapside merchant, and made the news by refusing to go on the next night in a play apparently called The Day After the Marriage. She is said to have attempted London under name of 'Miss Harrington'. I'm not sure if she ever acted again, and she seems to have died in 1868 'aged 50'.

Here's another Crisp playbill culled from the web. This one is 1815.

Mr Gallott, Mr Shuter, Mr and Mrs Chambers are already on the bills. Mr Marratt. I guess the one such who performed 'wonderful evolutions on the slack rope' at Hereford in 1819. And Mr Cuffley!  Is this the George Carver Cuffley of Northampton, music seller, who married Frances Mary Sternberg, vocalist in 1825? Can't be, he'd be 13 years old. A good few Cuffleys in Northants .. bah! it's no use.

Mr Blanchard OK, Mr Norman yes. Ah, Mrs Mardyn. Poor Mrs Mardyn.

Mrs MARDYN (née Charlotte INGRAM) (c Chickester c1791; d unknown) had a brief but sunny career. You can read her story in The Era for 10 April 1853. Way after her period in the limelight, but Charlotte made a mark in her time ... To sum up, she was a sexy servant lass who courted and married a pretty but dissolute actor named Mardyn, took to the stage, was a great success, quickly rose to Drury Lane heights ... and then someone started a rumor. At the time the lurky Lord Byron was estranged from wife, and had been putting himself around -- seemingly without regard to age or sex -- whilst sheltering behind his aristocratic and popular persona. It doesn't seem to have done much harm to his various paramours, with one exception. Charlotte Mardyn. The public -- or an interested/influential portion of it hissed her from the Drury Lane stage -- quite how often or consistently this happened is related with various of degrees of vehemence, but suffice it that Charlotte was not retained either at Drury Lane or the Haymarket, left England for the Continent and there married a titled person (some say German, some French) and disappeared ...

This playbill comes from the period before Byron ...   there weren't too many post. So, did she or didn't she? And does it matter?

William BLANCHARD (b Newgate, Yorks 2 January 1769; d London 9 May 1835) needs no introduction. His life and splendid and appreciated career are detailed in the Dictionary of National Biography. He died from a fractured skull after being thrown from his chaise. His son was E L Blanchard of pantomime fame and the author of a memoir.

Mr NORMAN [MOWATT, Richard Henry Norman] (b 1788; d Newington Workhouse 15 September 1858). Often provincial theatres billed their artists with exaggerated or even false credits. 'Of La Scala' etc. But I feel that Mr Norman deserved rather better than his billing here. He was quite simply one of the foremost players of golden heyday of pantomime in early C19th Britain, right up there with Grimaldi and Bologna, both of whom he regularly partnered.

He was inevitably billed as 'Mr Norman', but I winkled out a tiny death notice which referred to him as Richard Norman. Then, chasing his official death record, I discovered that he was alias R H N Mowatt. Which has been no help at all in finding details of his birth or marriage.

So I'm forced to theorise. From about 1789 there were a Mr and Mrs Norman playing Chester ('his first appearance on this stage'), Manchester and the associated circuits. 1794, Manchester produced a pantomime The Chace, or Harlequin Skeleton and Mr Norman was the Pantaloon. Clearly not our 5 year-old Richard. Mr and Mrs are seen through the 1790s and .. well, is he the Mr Norman singing a comic song at Lancaster and acting with Miss Mellon at Manchester in assizes week, August 1804? Is it he at Manchester in December? At Lincoln in November 1805 ('his song was excellent')

then Grantham, Boston ... I think it must be Mr N senior. Because in May 1806, at the Aquatic Theatre, Sadler's Wells, a Mr Norman -- or Mr Norman -- appears as a dancer in something called Love in a Tub. In July he is feartured alongside Grimaldi in a dance routine Fun and Physic, a comic pantomime, Anthony Cleopatra and Harlequin and The Invisible Ring. 

The pantomimes and comic dances followed one after the other .. Harlequin Highflier, The Magic Urn, The Plagiarist, Quixote and Sancho, The Prophecy, Take Warning, Harlequin Pygmalion .. he had clown roles at the Olympic Pavilion, the Sans Pareil (The Fiery Cauldron), Covent Garden (Harlequin and Asmodeus opposite Grimaldi), the Lyceum, he was Pantaloon to the Clown of Grimaldi, played Crusoe to his Friday at Covent Garden, and at one stage doubled the Garden with the Coburg nightly. It didn't workout well. London traffic let him down and he was late at the Coburg. He was sacked ... and won £200 for breach of contract!

In 1820 he doubled Pantaloon with directing the Dublin panto. Grimaldi was Clown and when he was off, Norman stepped in to the part. He was seen in Dublin through till 1827 ...  then at Edinburgh ... which is my last sighting of him.

He lived thirty years longer. Where? Married? Children? When did he go to the workhouse ...? He lies in Norwood Cemetery. Anyone like to pop in and see if this famous man's gravestone is still there ..?

My time in Worcester has come to an end. I'll pop back up there from time to time to see if I can find another one or two of Crisp and Bennett's players ... but for now ... Au revoir.