Miles Peter Andrews (1742 – 18 July 1814) was an 18th-century English playwright, gunpowder manufacturer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1796 to 1814.

Biography

Andrews was the son of William Andrews, a drysalter of Watling Street and his wife Catherine Pigou. After helping his father in business in the day time, he was "accustomed to sally forth in the evening with sword and bag to

Ranelagh Ranelagh ( , ; ) is an affluent residential area and urban village on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland in the postal district of D06. History The district was originally a village known as Cullenswood just outside Dublin, surrounded by lande ...

or some other public place". He gradually made useful social connections and became a constant companion of Lord Lyttelton. He wrote plays musicals and operas. The first was performed at Drury Lane in 1774. In 1775 the opera diva

Ann Cargill Ann Cargill (born Ann Brown) (1760 – 4 March 1784) was a British opera diva and celebrated beauty whose life and death were a sensation in London at the close of the 18th century. Life Ann was born in London, the daughter of coal merchant Edw ...

aged 15 ran away with him and she then had to be restrained at home by a court order. Andrews had several further plays performed at the

Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...

. Andrews lived in a mansion at

Green Park Green Park, officially The Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the southern part – the core part – of the City of Westminster, Central London, but before that zone was extended to the north, to take in Marylebo ...

where he entertained the fashionable society of London, and was a member of several clubs. With his uncle Frederick Pigou, a director of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, Andrews became the owner of an extensive

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

factory at Hawley Mills on the

River Darent The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford, as illustrated by the adjacent photograph, snapped at high tide. 'Darenth' is frequen ...

at Dartford,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

George Colman the Younger George Colman (21 October 1762 – 17 October 1836), known as "the Younger", was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. He was the son of George Colman the Elder. Life He passed from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, and ...

described Andrews as "one of the most persevering poetical pests", and his plays as "like his powder mills, particularly hazardous affairs, and in great danger of going off with a sudden and violent explosion". This was no idle comparison as an explosion occurred in October 1790.''The World'' 14 October 1790 :"Between four and five o'clock this afternoon (October 12th 1790) the people here, and in the neighbourhood, were terribly alarmed by the blowing up of Mr Pegu (sic)'s Powder Mills, within a short mile of this town.." St James's South and east fronts 1814 edited

St James's South and east fronts 1814 edited

In 1796 Andrews succeeded Lord Lyttleton as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

which he represented until his death in 1814.History of Parliament Online - Miles Peter Andrews
/ref> There is a memorial to him in

St James's Church, Piccadilly St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, United Kingdom. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. Th ...

Works

* ''The Conjuror - a farce'' - Drury Lane 1774 * ''The Election - a musical interlude'' - Drury Lane 1774 * ''Belphegor, or the Wishes, a comic opera'' - Drury Lane 1778 * ''Summer Amusement, or an Adventure at Margate'', written with

William Augustus Miles William Augustus Miles (c. 1753–1817) was an English political writer. He was also a British agent in the years around the French Revolution. He is not to be confused with William Augustus Miles (1798–1851), penitentiary reformer. Early life ...

, - the

1779 * ''Fire and Water, a ballad opera'', - the Haymarket in 1780 * ''Dissipation, a comedy'' - Drury Lane 1781; * '' The Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern, a musical comedy'' - the Haymarket 1781 * ''The Best Bidder, a farce'' - the Haymarket 1782 * ''Reparation, a comedy'' - Drury Lane 1784 * ''Better Late than Never'' - Drury Lane 1790 * ''The Mysteries of the Castle'' - Covent Garden 1795.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Miles Peter 1742 births 1814 deaths English dramatists and playwrights English businesspeople Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 Place of birth unknown Place of death missing Date of birth unknown English male dramatists and playwrights