Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-07
ENGLISH ACTRESSES
Who Have Married Peers of the Realm
and Freshened Their Stagnant
and Poisoned Blood.
Good Performers Who Made Excellent
Wives-FoOtlight FayOrites Who
Are Now the Leaders OF Ton.

Are Now the Leaders Of Ton. |
st. Louis POST Dispatch: ''The mar
riage of Miss Fortune said Manager |
John w. Norton, who, since his return
from Europe, is full of all kind of old |
country "reminiscences, Ito Niscount
Garmoyle, eldest son of Earl Cairus,
recalls the marriage of other actresses to |
English peers. The first of these semi |
morganatic arrangements that we have |
on record is the union of Anastasia
Robinson with the Earl of Peterborough,
the hero of the expedition in Spain.
Miss Robinson first appeared on the
operate stage in 1714, and married the
earl ten years later. The marriage was
not made public for many years; still the
countess received the best company at
PETERBOROUGH House and the Earl's
country seat. Peterborough was sixty
when he made the actress his wife, and
lived to be seventy-five, the countess sur
viving him fifteen years.
"Lavinia Fenton, whose fame rests
upon the sensation she created at Lin
coins Inn Fields in 1928, in the part of
Polly Peachum, in Gays Beggdr's OPP
era, became the Duchess of Bolton.
Rich, the manager who took her in asia
beginner, gave her only fifteen shillings a
week, the usual salary for n~ovices, but
she made such a hit he was obliged to
double. the amount. For sixty nights the
opera ran, and
LAvINIA WAS THE RAGE
of London. Her admirers were num-
bsred by the hundreds, and so pressing
and demonstrative we're they in their at
tentions, that they made it necessary for
the pretty Polly to get a guard to accom-
pany her home every night. At the end
of the season the Duke of Bolton, who
had been among the most ardent of her
worshipers, took her off the stage, and
promised to make her his wife as soon as
ne got rid of the spouse he her pos
sessed. This spouse lived for twenty
three years longer tran the old duke
cared to have her live.A through all this
time his heart was true to Poll, and
when the duchess was safely under
| ground Miss Fenton, in due legal form,
became her successor. Lavinia was a
witty, accomplished and agreeable
| companion. and had a great taste
for literature. She was pleasant to look
at but not an extraordinary beauty. In
her later years she became so unpopular
among the lower orders that they were
with difficulty prevented from dragging
her out of her coffin. Before she died she
fell i'll love with an Irish surgeon to whom
she left the bulk of her fortune, her three
sons getting but 10000 each.
Another and later actress of the same
name. Mary Catherine Bolton, who also
made her best hit in the character OF
Polly Peachum, was, after seven years
stage life, married to Edward. Lord
Thurlow, a poet, and nephew Of the first
Lord Thurlow, the Judge. This Miss
sumption. She belongs to the early part
of this century.
ELIZABETH FARREN.
Countess of Derby, may next be mention.
ed. She suffered many privations anC
hardships in her childhood, and went on
the stage of the Haymarket Theater
London, at the age of fifteen. She after.
ward made herself famous by her mag.
~nificent impersonation of Lady Townly
in The Pror0ked Husband, and among
her ~thronging admirers numbered ole
Derby. She refused to hold any relations
with the earl except as that of his lega,
wife, and, like the duchess of Bolton
i q W van "a iOhS bihA lcl III Il IOuul
ess to die-more than twenty years, | be
lieve-when she and the earl we're united
Miss Farren's last appearance on the
stage was as Lady Teazle,' in 1897
within "a day or two afterward she became
Countess of Derby.
Laura Brunton's father was a mana
ger and herself a clever actress. She
played Lady Tumly' sand Beatrice,
and was il great f~avorite in her day. Ii
the first decade of the century she mar
ried the Earl of Craven, and lived unit
1856.
Harriet Mellon was the daughter o
l poor strolling actress, and was a grea
Lydia Languish' in the early part 20
the century. She retired from the stag,
in 1915 to marry a banker named Coutts
who died, leaving her an income o
nearly e100,000. Then she married tn,
Duke of st. Adams.
Maria Foote made her debut at Co
vent Garden, in 1914, in the part o
Amanthis' in The Child Of Nature, an,
later on played 'Letitia Hardy in tn,
Bellies ,~Strdtdgen', in a manner that -
SENT TALFOURD NTo OBSTACLES.
His description of her style in thi
character is said to apply to Ellel
Terry, who is known as the most fas
cinating 'Letitia Hardy of moderl
times. Maria was a little careless of he
honor, and had two children by a Col
Babeley before she accepted any of tn
many rich gentlemen who came suing 70
her hand. At last one was accepted,
squire, who changed his mind before tn
date set tor the wedding. and was iinet
t3GW for breach of promise. In 1881
having determined to reform her evi
ways, she became the wife of the Earl o
Harrington, and lived Ia reach the age O
s%ixty-nine years, dying in 1867,
Katherine Stephens, who began lf
a few years before the century, was
f%avorite vocalist and Il good actress. Sh
first appeared at Covept Garden in lS1,
as Mundane in De Arne's opera o
Z 4rtdrer.res, and not only captured tn
l town, but ran away with the Judgment O
? such Il clever writer as Leigh Hunt, VIII
t said something to the effect that Their
was nobody like Katie. He saw her i
Polly Peachum.' which impersonatio
he described as beyond competition
When forty-tive years old Miss Stephen
. married the Earl of Essex, who was the
eighty three years old. She died only Las
year, at the age of lightweight.
! ELIZABETH o'NEILL
was a great success, both in public an
q private life. and she deserved all tn
favors fortune favored her. with. Sh
was on the stage ut nineteen, in the yea
1911, and played Widow CHEEKY
solpmn,ai Constance, Lad
the stage only eight years when she maj
5 on the death of his uncle, in less than
year after the wedding, succeeded to til
. baronetcy, and thus made the actre.
Lady Wrixon Beecher. 1t is said tn;
she and her relations suggested to Thacl
cry those pictures of the Fotheringay
e and Capt. Costigan, which he has S
charmingly drawn. Lady Beecher die
in 1872 at the age of eighty.
j Next comes Louisa Mordaunt, VIII
: played Widow Cheerly.' She had bee
o on the stage only two years when sh
married a Capt. Nisbeth, of the Lii
4 Guards, who was accidentally killed, an
eleven years after her first matrimoni
venture began-in 1874, l think it was
!, she took a second husband, Sir Willial
Boothby, Bart, who left her a wido'
1 without a fortune, in a few months, whe
j she was obliged to return to the foo
lights.
! "a MISS ROBINSON,
j who must not be confounded with tn
d charming but unfortunate Miss Robil
son, better known as 'Perdita,' mario
in the first year of this century S
Charles Felix Smith of the Royal Engii
/ GERS.
twenty-five years ago Emily Saunde,
= who was a provincial actress of some r
/ pute, caught on to a live Scotch baron
named Sir William Don. The baron
was poor, and like all who imagine tn
the actors profession is the surest al
s~wiftest road to wealth, went on 4
stage and acted with Henry Irving
: E1,,burcb =, 1QS- c. H. Al vrI:r