Although the research published here focuses on individual objects from the museum collections, curating a display or exhibition more usually starts with a story, history or concept. The first step of the planning is to try and select the right art and objects to tell that story.
It is frustrating, therefore, that the item in Worcester City’s collection that best illustrates the histories of two great women of the theatre connected with Worcester – Sarah Siddons and Ann Julia Hatton – is an engraving of their brother-in-law/husband. Most large civic museum collections are compiled through donations, and not every story has been comprehensively retained or offered to their local museum. Museums Worcestershire’s curatorial team are currently working on the City and County’s collection development policies, and we hope to more actively fill some of the gaps over future years.
This item illustrates Mr William Hatton, a comic actor, on the stage at the Theatre Royal Worcester alongside a poem praising his work. This print was created by the London firm Laurie and Whittle for a benefit night for Hatton. Benefit performances were common in eighteenth century theatres and were a night when the performing star took all of the night’s profit – part of a business model that meant the theatre company could pay lower base salaries.
Perhaps Hatton’s biggest success was to marry into the Kemble family: marrying Ann, the seventh child of Roger Kemble. Kemble, originally from Hereford, formed a travelling theatre company with his wife and family, performing at a circuit of halls and festivals around the west and midlands and playing many times in Worcester. This was an apprenticeship in the world of theatre for his children, five of whom became successful actors on the London stage.
It was Roger Kemble’s eldest child, Sarah, born 1755, who would most take the theatrical world by storm. Even today, more than two centuries later, Sarah Siddons is considered one of England’s finest actors in a tragic role, particularly lauded for her intense portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Interestingly she even played the title role in Hamlet occasionally – the first time in Worcester in 1775, the same year she made her Drury Lane Theatre debut as Portia in the Merchant of Venice in David Garrick’s company. Worcester, no doubt thrilled by its connection with theatrical fame, built its first permanent theatre on Angel Street a few short years later. Sarah’s rise to fame came in parallel with the industrialisation of newspapers, meaning she reached a level of celebrity unheard of for previous generations of actors. She is reputed to have be paid £5000 a year for her performances, which would be close to £1 million today, such was her popularity.
Sarah’s younger sister Ann was born in 1764 in Worcester. At eighteen, she married an actor, Curtis, but then discovered that he was already married. In disgrace, unable to face her family, she earned her living working with Dr James Graham, who we would now describe as a celebrity sex therapist. Before long Ann managed to make an income through her own writing, publishing a successful book of poems. Aged 28, she married the actor William Hatton and they set off to America to make their fortune. William started a business making musical instruments and Ann carried on writing. Just two years later, her tremendously popular opera Tammany: The Indian Chief was given its première on Broadway. This was the first known opera libretto written by a woman, and the first major libretto written in the United States on an American theme. When the Hattons returned to Britain a few years later they first opened a bathing house. William then clearly returned to the acting circuit, but Ann went on to write fourteen gothic novels using the pen name Ann of Swansea, publish a play and many more volumes of poetry.
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