# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mellon, Sarah Jane

​MELLON, Mrs. SARAH JANE, formerly Sarah Jane Woolgar (1824–1909), actress, born at Gosport, Hampshire, on 8 July 1824, was daughter of a tailor named Woolgar, who went on the stage in 1829 and proved an indifferent tragedian. He gave his child an excellent professional training. Making her first appearance at Plymouth in May 1836, as Leolyn in 'The Wood Demon,' she quickly acquired a reputation as a 'young phenomenon,' performing at Halifax, York, Nottingham, and on the Worcester circuit. Subsequently she studied music, and at Birmingham in 1841, during the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Wood, the operatic vocalists [see Paton, Mary Ann], sang for five nights as Adalgisa in 'Norma.' In November 1842 she fulfilled a successful engagement at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, where she appeared as Ophelia.
On 9 Oct. 1843 Miss Woolgar made her London debut at the Adelphi as Cleopatra in Selby's burletta 'Antony and Cleopatra.' With the Adelphi she was long associated. Her first original character there was in T. Egerton Wilks's romantic drama 'The Roll of the Drum' on 16 October. On 8 April 1844 she joined the Keeleys at the Lyceum, and after appearing in several light pieces she rendered to great advantage the part of Mercy in Stirhng's version of 'Martin Chuzzlewit.'
In the autumn of 1844 the Adelphi reopened under the management of Benjamin Webster and Madame Celeste, and the golden period of Miss Woolgar's career at that theatre began. On 14 October she showed dramatic feeling as Lazarillo in Boucicault's 'Don Cesar de Bazan.' At the Haymarket on 18 Nov. (owing to the sudden illness of Madame Vestris) she played Lady Ahce Hawthorn, on half a day's notice, in the same author's new comedy 'Old Heads and Young Hearts.' She returned to the Adelphi at Easter 1845, and afterwards fulfilled some provincial engagements with her father. At the Adelphi on 11 March 1847 she was the original Lemuel in Buckstone's melodrama 'The Flowers of the Forest.' Dickens spoke of this performance as the most remarkable and complete piece of melodrama he had seen. Appearances in a variety of unimportant dramas, farces, and burlesques followed. After a severe illness she reappeared at the Adelphi on 1 March 1852 as Phoebe to Wright's Paul Pry, acting 'with her usual correct perception of character and vivacity.' In April 1853 she was Mrs. Vane in 'Masks and Faces,' and among her original characterisations in 1854 was Anne Musgrave in Tom Taylor and Charles Reade's 'Two Loves and a Life' (20 May).
In 1856 Miss Woolgar joined the Lyceum company under Charles Dillon, appearing there on 15 Sept. as Florizel in the burlesque of 'Perdita,' to the Perdita of Miss Marie Wilton (Lady Bancroft), who then made her metropolitan debut. On 16 Oct. she was the original Constance in 'The Three Musketeers.' In March 1857 she gave a notable rendering of Ophelia, and in the following Christmas sustained a leading character in the Oriental pantomime of 'Lalla Rookh.' On 20 Jan. 1858 she was the original Countess de Montelons in Leigh Hunt's comedy 'Lovers' Amazements.' At this period she was married to Alfred Mellon [q. v.], the musician, and thenceforth acted under her married name.
On the opening of the new Adelphi Theatre on 27 Dec. 1858, Mrs. Mellon played Memory in the apropos sketch 'Mr. Webster's company is requested at a Photographic Soiree,' afterwards delivering Shirley Brooks's inaugural address in the same character. Her finest original role at this period was Catherine Duval in Watts Phillips's 'The Dead Heart' (10 Nov. 1859). In January 1860 her Mrs. Cratchit in 'The Christmas Carol' was highly praised by Prof. Henry Morley. On 29 March 1860, at Covent Garden, in aid of the funds of the ill-fated Dramatic College, she played Black-Eyed Susan in Douglas Jerrold's drama to T. P. Cooke's William, notable as Cooke's last appearance on the stage. At the Adelphi on 10 Sept. 1860, when 'The Colleen Bawn' was performed for the first time in England, Mrs. Mellon played Anne Chute, 'winning, perhaps, the foremost honours of the night' (Morley). Her acting with J. L. Toole at the Adelphi in Oct. 1864 in 'The Area Belle' Dickens described in a letter as quite admirable. In September 1865 her Nan in 'Good for Nothing' was said by a competent critic to be as excellent in its way as Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle, which it then preceded. On 5 Oct. 1867 the Adelphi was reopened under her own supervision (but not responsible management). She then ​demonstrated her versatility by playing Peg Woffington in 'Masks and Faces' and Tom Croft in 'The School for Tigers.' On 20 Dec. 1867 she was the original Sally Goldstraw in Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins's drama 'No Thoroughfare.' In March 1875 she played Mrs. Squeers in a revival of Halliday's version of 'Nicholas Nickleby,' and in the following October Gretchen to Joe Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle. But, failing to keep step with the steady march towards naturalness, she came to be considered stilted and over pronounced, and she gradually lost caste. On 15 May 1878 a testimonial performance of 'The Green Bushes' was given on her behalf at Drury Lane, when Madame Celeste made her last appearance on the stage. On 14 May 1879 she reappeared at the Adelphi as Mrs. Candour in a revival of 'The School for Scandal,' and there on 24 April 1880 she played Mrs. O'Kelly in the first performance given in England of 'The Shaughraun.' On 2 August following, at the Haymarket, she was the original Miss Sniffe in Boucicault's comedy 'A Bridal Tour.' She remained on the stage till 1883.
Mrs. Mellon died at her residence, Vardens Road, Wandsworth Common, after a very brief illness, on 8 Sept. 1909, and was buried in Brompton cemetery beside her husband, whom she survived forty-two years. She left two daughters, of whom the younger. Miss Mary Woolgar Mellon, became an actress. 'In her prime,' writes John Coleman, 'Miss Woolgar was one of the most accomplished all-round actresses of her day; tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, or burlesque — nothing came amiss to her. . . . In high comedy she lacked distinction and hauteur; but a plenitude of sprightliness, piquancy, and even elegance, atoned for this drawback.' At the Victorian Era Exhibition in Earl's Court in 1897 was shown a water-colour drawing, by T. Harrington Wilson, of Mrs. Mellon as Laura in 'Sweethearts and Wives' (1849), lent by the artist. At the Toole sale at Sotheby's in November 1906 were sold an oil-painting by R. Clothier of Toole and Miss Woolgar in the milkmaid scene from 'The Willow Copse' (1869) and a water-colour sketch by Alfred Edward Chalon of Miss Woolgar as the Countess in 'Taming a Tartar.'
[Thomas Marshall's Lives of the Most Celebrated Actors and Actresses (1847); Theatrical Journal, vol. xi. 1854; Era Almanacks for 1875 and 1877; Gentleman's Magazine. Oct. 1888; T. Edgar Pemberton's Dickens and the Stage; Prof. Henry Morley's Journal of a London Playgoer; John Coleman's The Truth about 'The Dead Heart,' 1890; The Bancroft Memoirs, 1909; Daily Telegraph, 10 Sept. 1909; Athenæum, 18 Sept. 1900 : personal research.]
W. J. L.