page_title: Warwickshire Company of Comedians
section_title: Kemble
hierarchical_section_title: Warwickshire Company of Comedians / History / Kemble
caption_attribution_description: English: George Henry Harlow's Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine
context_page_description: The Warwickshire Company of Comedians, also known as Mr Ward's Company of Comedians and after 1767 as Mr Kemble's Company of Comedians, was a theatre company established by John Ward in Birmingham, England in the 1740s, touring throughout the West Midlands region and surrounding counties over subsequent decades. Unusual in the 18th century as a provincial company producing performances to London tastes and standards, it is particularly notable as the origin of the Kemble family theatrical dynasty, which was to dominate the English stage in the late-18th and early 19th centuries. Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble in particular, who were Ward's grandchildren and whose careers began in the company, were the leading actress and actor of their time, and are still considered among the greatest performers in English theatrical history.
context_section_description: The major turning point in the company's existence took place in 1751 when Richard Yates' company from London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opened the purpose-built King Street Theatre in Birmingham to compete with the smaller venue in Moor Street. Ward's reaction to this invasion of his long-held territory was ill-tempered – the contemporary actor Charles Lee Lewes records him describing the newcomers as "drawling, face-making puppies" and promising to "work the dogs a penn'orth for daring to cross my circuit" – and Ward responded by advertising in the London newspapers for "capital performers" to join him in Birmingham. This was pivotal moment in theatrical history, as it was this advertisement that brought Roger Kemble to Birmingham to join the company, and the following June in Cirencester Kemble married the Wards' daughter Sarah. Of the couple's twelve children each that survived into adulthood went onto the stage, all except one married performers, and all were to start their careers performing with the Warwickshire Company of Comedians: this marked the origin of the Kemble family, who were to dominate the English stage over the following decades.
  Several sources relate the Wards' anger at their daughter Sarah's elopement: she was not yet 16 and although a "main prop" of her father's in the "comic province", they felt that "an actor's existence was the last into which they wished her to drift". The Kembles were readmitted into the company, however, with Ward justifying his "sullen forgiveness" in the light of his low opinion of his new son-in-law's talents, telling his daughter "I forbade you to marry an actor. You have not disobeyed me since the man you have married neither is nor ever can be an actor". Although the Kembles left the company and toured independently between 1761 and 1763, the Wards retired to Leominster in 1766 and Roger Kemble took over its management on 24 May of that year. By the time the company appeared at Worcester in 1767 they were described as "Mr Kemble's Company of Comedians", with the cast featuring the Kembles' 14-year-old daughter Sarah – the future Sarah Siddons – and their 12-year-old son John Philip Kemble.
  Kemble retired in 1781 and the company's stock and goodwill was split between two of the company's members: John Boles Watson, who formed the "Cheltenham Company of Comedians" and established it as the resident company at his newly built Cheltenham Playhouse, and Henry Masterman.
caption: Members of the Kemble family, including Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble, performing at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1806
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