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Isabella Mattocks

{{Short description|British actress and singer (1746–1826)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2016}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Isabella Mattocks

| image = Isabella Mattocks by Gainsborough Dupont.jpg

| caption = Isabella Mattocks by Gainsborough Dupont 1833

| birth_name = Isabella Hallam

| birth_date = 1746

| birth_place = Whitechapel

| death_date = June 25, 1826

| death_place = Kensington

| death_cause =

| footnotes =

| nationality = British

}}

Isabella Mattocks (1746 – June 25, 1826) was a British actress and singer.

Early life

Hallam (later Mattocks) was baptised in Whitechapel in 1746 by Lewis and Sarah Hallam. Her father and her uncle William were also actors.Jared Brown, ‘Hallam, Lewis (1714?–1756?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64342, accessed 7 Feb 2015] Her grandfather Thomas Hallam had been part of the Drury Lane company when he was killed in a dispute with fellow actor Charles Macklin during a performance. When her parents and William decided to try acting in America in 1752{{Citation |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64342 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |pages=ref:odnb/64342 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-04-01 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/64342 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.|url-access=subscription }} they took three of Isabella's siblings, but she was left in the care of her aunt, Ann, and her husband John Barrington in England.{{cite book|title=The Cabinet: Or, Monthly Report of Polite Literature, Volume 4|date=1808|page=60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyYTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60|accessdate=7 February 2015}}

In 1762 she made her debut in the adult role of Juliet. For most of her childhood except for a few years at school she played small parts in the productions of the Covent Garden company of actors. When she was sixteen she joined the company and in 1765 she married her leading man George Mattocks. Hallam's guardians who she said treated her like true parents opposed the match for reasons that are not certain.Olive Baldwin, Thelma Wilson, ‘Mattocks , Isabella (1746–1826)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18350, accessed 7 Feb 2015]

Career

In 1767 she appeared in a revival of Double Falsehood which is a play that claims links to William Shakespeare.{{cite book|last1=Hammond|first1=[William Shakespeare] ; edited by Brean|title=Double falsehood or The distressed lovers|date=2010|publisher=A & C Black|location=London|isbn=978-1903436776|edition=3rd}}

The couple would appear together taking leading roles although Isabella was considered too short for some roles. By the time younger actresses were competing for her roles she was established as a character actor. She was believed to have had an affair with Robert Bensley but her marriage to George survived.

She was known for performing epilogues and these were sometimes written for her by the politician and playwright Miles Peter Andrews. Mattocks was to remain with the Covent garden acting company for 46 years. Thomas Dibdin noted that her last part was on 7 June 1808, noting how long she had amused her audiences.{{cite book|last1=Dibdin|first1=Thomas|title=The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin, of the Theatres Royal, Covent Garden, Volume 1|date=1827|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cOQ5AAAAcAAJ}} She only daughter who married Nathaniel Huson in 1801. Huson was a barrister who swindled Mattocks out of £6000. However a benefit was staged for her and this replaced over £1000 of what had been lost.

Mattocks died in Kensington in 1826.

Selected roles

file:Isabella Mattocks in the Road to Ruin.jpg's The Road to Ruin]]

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{Commons category-inline|Isabella Mattocks}}

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Category:1746 births

Category:1826 deaths

Category:Actors from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Category:18th-century British actresses

Category:19th-century English actresses

Category:19th-century British actresses

Category:British stage actresses

Category:People from Whitechapel