(Elizabeth) Camilla Dufour became Camilla Sarratt (17?? – 1846) was a British singer, writer and teacher of chess.

Life

Dufour came to notice when her father negotiated with the tenor Michael Kelly and the singer and actress

Anna Maria Crouch Anna Maria Crouch (20 April 1763 – 2 October 1805), often referred to as Mrs Crouch, was a singer and stage actress in the London theatre. She was (briefly) a mistress of George, Prince of Wales. Biography Born Anna Maria Phillips, she firs ...

that they would give her lessons in acting and singing for a share of her salary. She had made her debut at the King's Theatre, Haymarket in 1796 and went on that year to sing at the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...

in Oxford Street and in concerts organised by the German impresario

Johann Peter Salomon Johann Peter Salomon (20 February 1745 aptized– 28 November 1815) was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario. Although he was an accomplished violinist, he is best known for bringing Joseph Haydn to London and for c ...

. Her parents broke some agreements to take up a lucrative contract at Drury Lane where she sang well but in was noted that she was quite short and stout and she had poor acting skills. In 1803 she took to writing. This was how she met her future husband as he was using the same publisher. Jacob Henry Sarratt was known as the "Professor of Chess" and he wrote about that game. Her 1803 novel was "Aurora, or, The Mysterious Beauty" which was not original but based on a French work by J. J. M. Duperche. Duperche's book was not his idea either but it was inspired by a play by F. J. H. von Soden in German. She and Sarratt married at St. Leonard's, church in Shoreditch at the end of 1804. She was his second wife so she inherited two step children. Her new husband became the leading person in chess in London. He would go walking with a friend and they would play chess against each other by remembering all the positions and never using actual chess pieces or a board. She wrote but did not retire from singing. She appeared at

Astley's Amphitheatre Astley's Amphitheatre was a performance venue in London opened by Philip Astley in 1773, considered the first modern circus ring. It was burned and rebuilt several times, and went through many owners and managers. Despite no trace of the thea ...

during the summer as the leading singer in Astley's company. During the winter she was at the

Royalty Theatre The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938.

, in

Wellclose Square Wellclose Square is a public square in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south. The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was ca ...

. Her last known performance was in 1809 at the

Royal Circus The Surrey Theatre, London began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided entertainment of both horsemanship and drama ( hippodrama). It stood in Blackfriars Road, near the j ...

on the 30 October. Her husband died in his 40s in 1819 and she arranged for his book on chess to be published in 1821. She later moved to Paris. In 1843 it was reported that a subscription had been created for her benefit. Up to that date she had maintained herself by giving lessons about chess. The subscription appeal attracted donations from chess enthusiasts in England and France including

King Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

. Dufour died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1846.

References

External sites

Corvey Women Writers on the Web author page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufour, Camilla 1846 deaths British women singers 18th-century births British women writers 19th-century chess players