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Harriet Elizabeth Savill née Diddear, later married name Farren, known as Mrs Faucit) (1789–1857) was an English actress.
Harriet Diddear was the child of a theatre manager John Diddear and his wife Anne. She first appeared on stage at the age of six at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, and performed in Dover, Richmond and
Harriet Elizabeth Savill née Diddear, later married name Farren, known as Mrs Faucit) (1789–1857) was an English actress.
Harriet Diddear was the child of a theatre manager John Diddear and his wife Anne. She first appeared on stage at the age of six at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, and performed in Dover, Richmond and Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
in her childhood. At the age of 15 she eloped with, and on 2 September 1805 married, John Faucit Savill; shortly afterwards they appeared on stage at Margate and then Dover and as "Mr & Mrs Faucit". They had six children, including Helena or Helen Faucit (1817-1898), a celebrated actress.
In 1813 she appeared as Desdemona
Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian ...
at Covent Garden Theatre on 7 October, her London debut, and she played Cleopatra there on 15 November. For the next twenty years she performed at Covent Garden, the Haymarket Theatre and Drury Lane.
The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' summarises her acting career thus:
In 1821 she sought an annulment of her marriage, unsuccessfully; she left her husband for William Farren
William Farren (13 May 1786 – 24 September 1861) was an English actor, who was the son of an actor (born 1725) of the same name, who played leading roles from 1784 to 1795 at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.
Life
Raised on Gower Street in Lo ...
(1786-1861), whom she married in 1853 after her first husband's death. He had two sons, actors Henry Farren (1826?-1860) and William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
(1825-1908); while the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' states that these were Harriet's sons, the records of the Garrick Club Collections describe them as the sons of "an unknown woman (his first wife?)".
She died in London on 16 June 1853.
References
1789 births 1857 deaths 18th-century English actresses English stage actresses 19th-century English actresses {{England-actor-stub