Biography and career

Honner, born at Enniskillen

Enniskillen

Enniskillen is a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is located almost exactly in the centre of the county between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,599 in the 2001 Census...

, Ireland, 21 Dec. 1812, was a daughter of Eugene Macarthy, actor and manager, who died in the Dramatic College at Maybury, Surrey, 14 May 1866, aged 78. Educated at Cork, she lost her mother at an early age, and being thrown on her own resources, with a younger brother to support, made a first appearance on the stage at a theatre in the south of Ireland. She afterwards played in Dublin, and as the hero of juvenile tragedy attracted the notice of Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.-Early life:Kean was born in London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey...

 and William Charles Macready

William Charles Macready

-Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...

. Her first important character was Rosalie Somers in Thomas Morton

Thomas Morton (playwright)

Thomas Morton was an English playwright.-Life:Morton was born in the city of Durham. He was the son of John and Grace Morton of Whickham, County Durham. He went to London to study law at Lincoln's Inn, but abandoned his studies for playwriting. For much of his life, Thomas lived in Pangbourne in...

's Town and Country, which she played to Edmund Kean. An engagement in Scotland followed, and she became a popular favourite. In 1831 she was engaged by John Farrell for the Pavilion Theatre, London, where for two seasons she was the leading attraction. In 1833 she transferred her services to the Coburg Theatre, and, on the retirement of G. B. Davidge the lessee, removed to Sadler's Wells, where Robert William Honner

Robert William Honner

Robert William Honner was an English actor and theatre manager.-Early and personal life:Honner was the youngest son of John Honner, solicitor, of the firm of Fletcher & Honner, of the parish of St. Anne, Soho, who died in 1817...

 was the manager.

After the successful termination of two seasons she went to the Surrey Theatre

Surrey Theatre

The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama...

. In June 1835 she played with exceptional success Julia in the ‘Hunchback’ at Drury Lane

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

 for the benefit of ‘Jerry-Sneak Russell.’ On 21 May 1836 she married Honner.

She continued acting with her husband at the Surrey until Whitsuntide 1838, when he became lessee of Sadler's Wells, where they played together for about five years with much success. At the request of Davidge she returned to the Surrey, where she remained until 17 Sept. 1845, and then went to the City of London Theatre. She was a good actress in pathetic rôles, and after the retirement of Elizabeth Yates was for a time without a rival. She was excellent in many Shakespearean parts, as well as in Mary in 'Paul the Pilot,' Susan in 'Kohal Cave,' Felix in the 'French Revolution,' Blanche in 'Blanche Heriot

Blanche Heriot

Blanche Heriot was a legendary heroine from Chertsey, Surrey, whose story was first brought to a wider public in two works by the Chertsey-born Victorian writer Albert Smith.-Background:...

,' and Clemency in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's 'The Battle of Life

The Battle of Life

The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in 1846. It is the fourth of his five "Christmas Books", coming after The Cricket on the Hearth and followed by The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain....

.' She died of paralysis at the residence of her second husband, Frederick Morton, stage-manager of Charing Cross Theatre, on 4 Jan. 1870.