| Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition | Public Domain via Project Gutenberg |
(1802-1879), English actor and dramatic writer, was born at Hoxton on the 14th of September 1802. He was articled to a solicitor, but soon exchanged the law for the stage. After some years as a provincial actor he made his first London appearance, on the 30th of January 1823, at the Surrey theatre, as Ramsay in the Fortunes of Nigel. His success led to his engagement in 1827 at the Adelphi, where he remained as leading low comedian until 1833. At the Haymarket, which he joined for summer seasons in 1833, and of which he was lessee from 1853 to 1878, he appeared as Bobby Trot in his own Luke the Labourer; and here were produced a number of his plays and farces, Ellen Wareham, Uncle Tom and others. After his return from a visit to the United States in 1840 he played at several London theatres, among them the Lyceum, where he was Box at the first representation of Box and Cox. As manager of the Haymarket he surrounded himself with an admirable company, including Sothern and the Kendals. He produced the plays of Gilbert, Planché, Tom Taylor and Robertson, as well as his own, and in most of these he acted. He died on the 31st of October 1879. He was the author of 150 plays, some of which have been very popular. His daughter, Lucy Isabella Buckstone (1858-1893), was an actress, who made her first London appearance at the Haymarket theatre as Ada Ingot in David Garrick in 1875.