I never cease to wonder at the things theatrical that survive through the centuries. And what the 21st century thinks is worth saving... which is usually things with a buzzword name attached to them. I, of course, don't care for buzzword names .. they've been buzzed frequently by others ... however, something like this makes my eyes light up ...
Mrs West has sold 822 tickets, it seems, for her Benefit performance at Drury Lane. This one for an entire box.
In fact, the Benefit was only half hers. She shared the proceed of the evening with Mr Knight, and they and Elliston performed The Provok'd Husband as the principal item on the bill ...
So, who was Mrs West?
Well, over the years I have stored up lots of credits for the lady, but it seems I needn't have bothered, for The Dictionary of National Biography has given her detailed coverage and a vast (if not exhaustive) list of credits, to which wikiplegia has helped itself. But occasionally the august volume seems to nod a little ...
Well, here goes my version. Sarah Cooke was the 'only' daughter of Isaac Cooke and his wife Martha née Remington or Rimmington, born at Bath 22 March 1790. Isaac was a 'respectable tradesman', in fact an upholder (ie upholsterer &c), but his family seems to have reeked music and theatre. Nobody has been game, as far as I can see, to make a Cooke family tree ... even the DNB obnubilates such information. But. There are various bits and bobs 'cousin of' etc etc. floating around.
I've spent incommensurate time on trying to sort this one out and it seems, and at first I thought it seemed, I mean SEEMED, that some part of the family stemmed from the oboeist Bartholemew Cooke ...
Bartholemew (ka Bartlett) Cooke seemingly bred well. I can't spend any more time on his genealogy but he definitely spawned the odd theatrical. There was, notably, his son Thomas Simpson Cooke (1782-1848) of Drury Lane, a considerable figure in the musical world of the times.
And then they come, the various family obituaries ..... with all sorts of sisters and cousins and aunts .. and it all becomes a a huge muddle. Which I'm going to leave till later ... because ... well, just one point in passing: our Sarah Cooke-West did NOT marry the writer William Leman Rede. He wed her cousin, Sarah Elizabeth Cooke ...
So. There appear to have been a number of Cooke siblings and a number of them appear to have gone into the theatre. There was James Cooke (d Bath 24 February 1832) 'uncle of Mrs W West and Mrs Waylett'. 'Of Drury Lane' in the pre-Elliston period. At his death he was said to have been 'one of the oldest actors existing'. He was apparently a fine bass singer, and the father of Mrs Leman Rede. Another (?) daughter had a bad on-stage accident at Bath Theatre (1828) ... I see that there is a Mr Cooke playing at Bath in 1769 ... and one at Chester in 1792 ... Mrs Cooke of the Bath Theatre is complimented on her musical talents in 1800, there's the well-known toper, Mr George Cooke of Covent Garden getting his marriage to Alicia Daniels anulled in 1801, briefly marrying a Sarah Lambe, and playing at Bath .. he's still of Covent Garden in 1808. Dead in 1812. I'm sure he's not one of our Cookes.
Ah! In 1811 Mr Cooke 'of Bath' takes a Benefit at Bath Theatre. And oh ... tickets are being sold by Mr C at the theatre, another Mr C at Burlington House, and Mr J C 'upholder' at 17 Argyle Street. And the dancers are Miss Cooke and Miss M Cooke. 1815 there is a Miss Cooke in Scotland. 1817, Miss Cooke and Miss Patty Cooke at Bristol .. (those are Sarah Elizabeth and her sister Martha Mary later Mrs Young and Mrs Vezin), Mrs West (née Cooke) of Covent Garden has a son ... so we have arrived back at Mrs West. Cousin of Harriett Cooke-Waylett whose father was ... Oh look, here's a John Cooper of Drury Lane, cousin to Mrs West ... and a Mr F Cooke of Drury Lane ... perhaps that's the dreaded George Frederick ...
And Oh dear! Mr Cooke, upholder, 'respectable tradesman' of Bath drags a guards officer named William Augustus Dobyn to court for seducing his actress daughter named ... Harriet. But that's Waylett, not West, surely? So, it seems that both brothers (Isaac and John) were into textile and tacks? Anyway, it cost the seductive gent 300£. Harriet Waylett's career has been dealt with, contemporaneously, by Oxberry in his famous Biographica Dramatica, but alas there we learn only that her father was an 'upholder'. Ah! A family historian tells us that John had brothers Isaac (yay! 1758, 'upholder, auctioneer, undertaker'), James (1766 .. the old actor) and Edward (1773) the father of all whom was another Isaac (1735-1780) ... so, nothing to do with Bartholemew the oboeist?? But there must have been a sister if Mr Cooper is a cousin. And who is Samuel Morant Cooke born 1764 to Isaac and Sarah? Too many Cookes spoil my wrath!
Well, I'll tabulate it all sometime. But it appears Bartholemew -- and thus T S Cooke, ar'n't part of the West-Waylett crowd. But now, a swift look at Mrs William West, who got me into all this.
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| Four and a half Cookes! |
No use repeating Oxberry and the DNB. They are fairly correct. Oh, Sarah was about 8 years older than Harriet, so the earliest mentions of Miss Cooke are she. Or her other cousins. You see the problem ... Anyway, the idea that Sarah and Harriet were 'playmates' and that Sarah got into theatricals because of Harriet seems highly improbable.
So we go, as so often, with Oxberry. And we just say that Sarah married William West (actor of Bath, Drury Lane &c), went swiftly from the theatres of the provinces (I see her in 1811 at Cheltenham) to an appearance at Covent Garden as Desdemona, and, a few years later, now Mrs West, became, in 1818, leading lady at Drury Lane, where she featured for several years opposite Edmund Kean, then under Elliston as Cordelia, Anne to Kean's Richard III, Imogine to his Bertram, Lady Macbeth to his Thane, Tarquinia to his Brutus, Imma in The Dwarf of Naples, Lady Amaranth in Wild Oats ... So at the period of this Benefit, she was the first lady of the first theatre in London.
She was leading lady to Wallack, Charles Kean, Macready ... appearing sometimes in second roles when a juvenile lady or a specialist vocalist was needed as lead ... and, in 1829, she accompanied Wallack to Paris's Théâtre Anglais where she was much liked: 'Mme West s'est acquitté de son role avec beaucoup d'abandon et de simplicité: point de cris effrayans et de gestes sans gout et sans mesure, une contenance douce et fière ...'. She appeared at Norwich in 1830 'Mrs W West whose commanding figure, prepossessing countenance and excellent acting have unitedly proved a graceful ornament and a powerful support to the histrionic strength of the company at Drury Lane ..' then at Dublin where her performance of the title-role in Shiel's Evadne (supported by a Mr Cooke!) won 'peals of applause' 'inimitable' 'exquisitely observed'. She won 'rapturous applause' as Lewis's Adelgitha, and now played, at forty, Emilia rather than Desdemona, Gertrude not Ophelia, Portia in Julius Caesar, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III et al. From a lengthy stay in Ireland she moved to Liverpool (Emma to Macready's William Tell, Gertrude to the Hamlet of Vandenhoff and Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth) before being head-hunted by Elliston for the Surrey Theatre (1832). 'She is an actress who never offends, always acquits herself with propriety, and often shows capacities of a higher order' wrote one critic when she appeared in the too-lofty-for-the-south-bank Damon and Pythias. He was happier with Jonathan Bradford in which she and Osbaldistone took the lead roles. In 1834 the theatre played Esmeralda or the Deformed of Notre Dame, and in the role of Gudule, Sarah produced 'the finest piece of acting in the play'. For her Benefit, she played Jonathan Bradford opposite her cousin's huband, Leman Rede. In 1835, she appeared at the Victoria, and at then became installed at Covent Garden (an umpteenth Lady Macbeth, Gertrude &c). When Notre Dame was made into an opera, Quasimodo, she repeated her role of Gudule. Queen Eleanor to the King John of Macready, Helen Macgregor for the nth time opposite Vandenhoff, the Queen to the Richard the Third of Macready, Volumnia in Coriolanus until mid-1837, when she took an engagement at the Colosseum. In 1838 she returned to the Surrey, starred at the Pavilion and then returned to the provinces to play in The Ballad Singer (originally intended as a vehicle for Harriet) which transferred to London's Strand Theatre.
In 1839 she and Harriet were both back at Drury Lane (Elvira in Pizzaro, Meg Merrilees, Countess of Argyle in Mary Stuart) in 1840-2 she returned to Covent Garden (Jacintha in The Spanish Curate, Lady Sneerwell in The School for Scandal with Vestris as Lady Teazle, Hyppolita to the Theseus of cousin Cooper, Mrs Dangle in The Critic) playing roles suited to the 50 year-old lady she now was. The press remarked of her Hippolyta 'in the short part she played [she] looked very beautiful and spoke with a classic judgement which merited much praise'.
In the years that followed, she visited the Victoria, the Pavilion, the Lyceum playing in Aslar and Ozines with the performing lions, at the Olympic in Leman Rede's new play, at Sadler's Wells, the City of London, the Marylebone and played at the Olympic under Miss Davenport, at the Standard ... and when she ventured out of London for race week at Windsor, with Charles Dillon, the local press acclaimed her 'the first tragic actress extant'. And hired the pair for next year's festivities.
In 1847 Leman Rede died and the press confirmed, logically, that he was the husband of Sarah Elizabeth. And our Sarah was still giving her Lady Macbeth, and fulfilling engagements at the Surrey (Meg Merrilees, Pizarro) and in her popular roles. In 1849 she repeated her Queen Elizabeth at the Strand, her Emilia, her Gertrude and her Lady Macbeth at the City of London. She also lost her 25 year-old son, an artist, who died of Carbonate of Lead poisoning.
At sixty, she was well into the instructing business and pupils -- Sarah Lyons, Clara Grosvenor -- 'gives lessons in elocution and to receive pupils for the stage agt her residence 277 Strand'. Later she had rooms in Store Street, Bedford Square. By the 1870s she was 'formerly actress'. Mrs West died at Glasgow 30 December 1876, at the age of 86.
Sarah and West had separated after two sons. Anthony we know the fate. The other was William Henry Custance West (1818-1876) 'comic vocalist and author of many well-known comic songs. Long-established favourite in the Metropolitan and Provincial concerts'. He and his wife did a blackface act as 'Mr and Mrs W West'. By the 1870s he was 'milliner, late vocalist'.
Well, I wasn't looking to get into a genealogical hunt on this one. But other folk have taken wrong turnings and published false information .. so .. I think father Isaac is probably not of the family of Bartholemew, of Thomas Simpson or of George Frederick. I think, also, that the family historians are correct. As far as they go. Isaac son of Isaac had for brothers John, James and Edward.
1757 Isaac Cooke bachelor marries Sarah Milsum 11 September at Walcot; 1764 Isaac Cooke, upholder, George Street, Bath; 1771, 1777,1778, 1779 Isaac Cooke, auctioneer. 1777 Isaac Cook(e) churchwarden Bath. 1779 Isaac Cooke 'upholstery cabinet'
Oh! March 1781 selling up of the estate of Isaac Cooke 'dwelling and lodging house in the Circus, corner, Bennet Street ..' 'mahogany four post bed'. That's grandad, surely. Oh my! What an address!
Bath 1824: Cooke, J upholder and auctioneer 4 Broad Street. Mrs Cooke 38 New King Street ...
In Sarah's obit were mentioned James's daughters, Jemima and Patty (Cooke/Johnson/Young/Vezin) and Sarah Elizabeth (Rede), and oh dear, Mr F Cooke of Drury Lane! ...
Enough. Many pieces of the puzzle are here ... now to put them together! I have a headache ... why do reference works make such horrid errors? Gin time.
I shall return to the Cookes when my head is cleared. And John Cooper.
I might as well pop the 1829 playbill featuring Mr W Leman Rede in here ... but no Cookes.
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