Henrietta Amelia Leeson
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Henrietta Amelia Leeson (1751 – 6 December 1826) was an English actress of the 18th-century.[1]
Born in London, Leeson developed an early interest in the theatre through the encouragement and support of her friends exacerbated by the frequent absence of her father from the family home owing to the long hours he worked in his printer's business. The Irish actor Charles Macklin took her on as an apprentice and in 1771 she accompanied him to Ireland where she made her début at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin. Leeson played a number of roles on her tour of Ireland with Macklin's company including Portia and Desdemona. On their return to Dublin Leeson continued to act in Macklin's company until he released her from her apprenticeship following which she joined the Dawson Company at the Capel Street Theatre. She began to live with the actor William Thomas Lewis and went with him to England in 1775 where they married in about 1780. As well as with her husband she acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, at first as Mrs Leeson and later as Mrs Lewis, She joined her husband on his tours of the provinces.[2]
The quality of her acting is debated: Joseph Haslewood claimed her occasional appearances on the London stage lists (103 between 1775 and 1791) were owing to her wanting to provide for her large family rather than through a desire to display her talent.[3] However, another critic said of her first appearance at Covent Garden that 'there was an ease and nature in her deportment and dialogue that entitles her to encouragement'.[4] while Tate Wilkinson described her as 'an amiable handsome woman, and a pleasing actress'.[5]
Henrietta Amelia Leeson died on 6 December 1826.
References
- ^ Accounts of Henrietta Amelia (Leeson) Lewis - Folger Shakespeare Library
- ^ Roland Metcalf,William Thomas Lewis - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2012)
- ^ Joseph Haslewood, The secret history of the green rooms: containing authentic and entertaining memoirs of the actors and actresses in the three theatres royal, 2 vols. (1790)
- ^ The Westminster Magazine, November 1775
- ^ Tate Wilkinson, The wandering patentee, or, A history of the Yorkshire theatres from 1770 to the present time, 4 vols. (1795)
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