Harriet Pitt (12 October 1748 – 10 December 1814) was a British actress and dancer.

Life

Pitt was born to

Ann Pitt Ann Pitt (1718 – 18 December 1799) was a British actress. Life Pitt was born in 1718 to Elizabeth. Her father, John, was a warden for London Bridge and he sold fish. Her brother, Cecil, became rich dealing in dry goods whereas Ann's career led ...

who was an actress. In 1758 she was appearing doing recitations. The theatrical career did not involve major parts but she did appear at the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drur ...

and the

Covent Garden Theatre The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

. Her first child was George Cecil Pitt (baptised 1767 – 1820), fathered by George Anderson. George Cecil Pitt became a musician and was the father of the dramatist

George Dibdin Pitt George Dibdin Pitt (born George Pitt , 30 March 1795 – 16 February 1855) was an English actor, stage manager and prolific playwright, specializing in melodrama. He was the first playwright to dramatize the fictional character Sweeney Todd, in hi ...

, who as a young man took Dibdin as his middle name in honour of his uncles, Harriet's later sons. She established a relationship with

Charles Dibdin Charles Dibdin (before 4 March 1745 – 25 July 1814) was an English composer, musician, dramatist, novelist, singer and actor. With over 600 songs to his name, for many of which he wrote both the lyrics and the music and performed them himself, ...

who already had a family and together they had four children. The eldest was the songwriter

Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin (17 October 1768 – 15 January 1833), or Charles Pitt or Charles Dibdin the younger, as he was professionally known, was an English dramatist, composer, writer and theatre proprietor. He was perhaps best known ...

who was born in 1768. The next, a daughter, Harriott, was born in 1770 and died in infancy. Another son and songwriter was

Thomas John Dibdin Thomas John Dibdin (21 March 1771 – 16 September 1841) was an English dramatist and songwriter. Life Dibdin was the son of Charles Dibdin, a songwriter and theatre manager, and of "Mrs Davenet", an actress whose real name was Harriett Pitt ...

who was born in 1771. A second daughter, known also as Harriet Pitt (1772-1836) became an actress at Saddler's Wells. Harriet gave birth to Charles in Russell Court,

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, he was named after his father's

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

Isaac Bickerstaffe Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff (26 September 1733 – after 1808) was an Irish playwright and Librettist. Early life Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government posi ...

and their character Mungo in an

afterpiece An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening.p24 "The Chambers Dictionary"Edinburgh, Chambers,2003 This short comedy, farce, o ...

entitled ''

The Padlock ''The Padlock'' is a two-act 'afterpiece' opera by Charles Dibdin. The text was by Isaac Bickerstaffe. It debuted in 1768 at the Drury Lane Theatre in London as a companion piece to '' The Earl of Warwick''. It partnered other plays before a run ...

''. Charles Dibdin made his theatrical debut opposite his younger brother

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...

's ''

The Jubilee ''The Jubilee'' is a 1769 play by the British playwright and actor-manager David Garrick, with music by Charles Dibdin. It was based on his ''Shakespeare Pageant'' which he had originally planned to stage during the Shakespeare Jubilee in S ...

'' in 1775. Soon after this performance, his parents separated, and Charles changed his surname to Pitt.Kilburn, Matthew
"Dibdin, Charles Isaac Mungo"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed December 2012 David Garrick was Thomas's godfather and he looked after the family when the elder Charles Dibdin abandoned this family too.Dwayne Brenna, ‘Pitt, Ann (c.1720–1799)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 201
accessed 9 Feb 2015
/ref> Harriet entrusted the upbringing of her children to her uncle, Cecil Pitt, and he sent both boys away to a boarding school at

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, Northern England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automato ...

. The school kept them there even during the holidays and Thomas did not return for five years.Matthew Kilburn, ‘Dibdin, Charles Isaac Mungo (1768–1833)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 9 Feb 2015
/ref> Harriet appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre in the 1770s as she started to use the name "Mrs Davenett". Still using this new name she obtained regular work at the Covent Garden during most of the 1780s and until 1793. Pitt retired in 1793 and she was buried, with her mother, in 1814.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Harriet 1740s births 1814 deaths English stage actresses