Harlow The Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine

Kemble is the name of a family of English actors, who reigned over the English stage for many decades. The most famous were Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) and her brother John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), the two eldest of the twelve children of

Roger Kemble Roger Kemble (1 March 1721 – 6 December 1802) was an English theatre manager, strolling player and actor. In 1753, he married Irish actress Sarah "Sally" Ward (1735–1806) at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and they had thirteen children, who f ...

(1721–1802), a strolling player and manager of the

Warwickshire Company of Comedians 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 ...

, who in 1753 married an actress, Sarah Ward. Roger Kemble was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, and was a grand-nephew of Father John Kemble, a recusant Catholic priest, who was hanged in that city in 1679. Three younger children of Roger, Stephen Kemble (1758–1822),

Charles Kemble Charles Kemble (25 November 1775 – 12 November 1854) was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family. Life Charles Kemble was one of 13 siblings and the youngest son of English Roman Catholic theatre manager/actor Roger Kemble, ...

(1775–1854), and Elizabeth Whitlock (1761–1836), were also actors, while Ann Hatton was a novelist.

Popular culture

In George Henry Harlow's famous painting ''

The Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' he depicted many of the Kemble family members. The subject of the painting comes from Henry VIII, Act II, Scene iv, and the refutation of Cardinal Wolsey, charged with obtaining Henry's divorce from his Queen, Katherine. The production was mounted by John Philip Kemble when he took over the management of Covent Garden in 1806. Harlow was a personal friend of the Kemble family and this picture is homage to his friends. John Philip Kemble clothed in scarlet plays Wolsey; his brother

(in black) has the part of Thomas Cromwell and sits behind the table. Immediately behind and above him is Stephen Kemble as Henry. The sister, Sarah Siddons, is Katherine.Details of the painting are explained by Desmond Shawe-Taylor in Jane Martineau's ''Shakespeare in Art'' (148).

Extended family

The tradition was continued by two daughters of Charles Kemble and Maria Theresa Kemble: actress and Shakespearean reader Fanny Kemble (1800–1893) and Adelaide Kemble (1815–1879), an opera singer. Both Sarah Siddon's son Henry Kemble and Stephen Kemble's son, also named Henry Kemble, became actors. Among later members of the Kemble family, mention may also be made of Charles Kemble's grandson, Henry Kemble (1848–1907), a sterling and popular London actor. At least two 20th Century members were Violet Kemble-Cooper and Lillian Kemble-Cooper. The 20th-century Scottish socialite

Jane Beadon Vera Jane Siddons Beadon, formerly Jarvis and Wigham, (née Corby; 4 December 1913 – 30 June 1999) was a Scottish socialite, heiress, and actress. She was known as the leading witness in the internationally publicized 1963 divorce case between h ...

was also a descendant of the Kemble family.

References

*{{EB1911, wstitle=Kemble English families Acting families Literary families