Louisa Chatterley
Louisa Chatterley | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Louisa Simeon c. 1797 |
| Died | 1851 or later |
| Other names | Mrs Chatterley |
| Known for | Acting |
| Spouse(s) | William Simmonds Chatterley, Francis Place |
| Partner | William Edward Taylor Christmas |
Louisa Chatterley or Louisa Place born Louisa Simeon (1797-1851 or later) was a British actress. She was involved in an embezzlement case and she later married a noted social reformer with fifteen children.
Life
Louisa Simeon was born in Piccadilly on 16 October 1797 to Madame Simeon. From the age of three she was sent to convents, a boarding school and finally a seminary by her milliner mother.[1]
She came to notice on 11 August 1814 when she married the actor William Simmonds Chatterley. The two of them both enjoyed some success. She took the name "Mrs Chatterley" and she worked regularly in comedic roles in Bath and London. It was said that she was particularly adept at playing a French woman. She appeared in well known plays including The Rivals, She Stoops to Conquer[2] and Twelve Precisely where Chatterley was required to play twelve different roles as she tests the character of a lover.[1] In the winter of 1821 she was earning 12 guineas a week employed at Covent Garden.[1]
She went on to have a relationship with William Edward Taylor Christmas whilst still nominally married to William Chatterley. Christmas was a clerk at Hoares bank who had married a rich widow after he had been asked by the bank to advice her on her affairs. This was considered acceptable behaviour until he started a relationship with Chatterley.[3] The rich widow was annoyed at Louisa's behaviour and tried to get her mother, Madame Simeon, to intercede.[1] Meanwhile, the bank sacked him citing the poor example his lifestyle set to have one of their clerks in a relationship with "an actress". As it turned out the bank was to remember Christmas as it turned out he had embezzled thousands of pounds. Some suspected this was to fund his time with Chatterley. Christmas was sentenced to be transported for 14 years and in 1825 he wrote an apology to the bank asking for leniency. They arranged for him to get an office job where he was again found to be forging documents.[3]
Her second marriage was to the social reformer Francis Place in February 1830. Place was a social reformer who had 15 children and championed unfashionable reforms such as birth control.[4] Chatterley continued to act and in 1835 she was painted in the role of Lady Teazle by George Clint[5] and sketched by Rose Emma Drummond.[6] Her husband's family were not impressed by his new wife. In 1833 their finances required that they move from Brompton to Craing Cross. Place's son father considered his father "virtuous" up to the point where he married. Place suffered a stroke in 1844 and they separated in 1851. Her husband went to live with his children and died in 1854.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d Thespis (1841). The daughters of Thespis; or, A peep behind the curtain. pp. 154–163.
- ^ "Chatterley, William Simmonds (1787–1822), actor | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5186
- ^ a b "Appeal by William Christmas" (PDF). Hoares Bank. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ^ a b Thomas, William (2004-09-23). Place, Francis (1771–1854), radical and chronicler. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22349.
- ^ "CollectionsOnline | G0111". garrick.ssl.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
- ^ "CollectionsOnline | G0112". garrick.ssl.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
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