Sarah Hallam Douglass

Sarah Hallam Douglass (d. Philadelphia, 1773)[1] was an English-born American stage actress and theatre director. She was known as Mrs Lewis Hallam and Sarah Hallam.[2]

Sarah Hallam Douglass
BornSarah Smythies Edit this on Wikidata
Died1777 Edit this on Wikidata
Jamaica Edit this on Wikidata
Spouse(s)Lewis Hallam, David Douglass Edit this on Wikidata
ChildrenLewis Hallam Jr., Isabella Mattocks Edit this on Wikidata

Life

The details of her birth including her last name are unknown.[2]

She was an actor married to Lewis Hallam, with whom she travelled to America to perform in his company in May 1752 on board the Charming Sally.[2] They left a daughter behind and she became the leading British actress Isabella Mattocks.[3]

They arrived in Yorkton on 2 June and by 16 June they were advertising in Williamsburg.[2] This was the first permanent theater company in North America. Sarah Hallam Douglass, along with the other female members of the troupe, was thus among the first professional leading lady in North America. She performed principal female roles until she gradually left them to Margaret Cheer and Nancy Hallam in the mid 1760s.

Her spouse died in Jamaica, where the company had gone to perform.[1] After the death of Lewis Hallam she married David Douglass,[1] with whom she formed the American Company in 1758.[4] Her son by Lewis, Lewis Hallam, Jr. became an actor in his mother and step father's company.[1]

References
  1. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Hallam, William" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  2. Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "Sarah Hallam in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. ref:odnb/64342, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64342, retrieved 1 April 2023
  3. Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "Sarah Mattocks in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. ref:odnb/18350, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18350, retrieved 1 April 2023
  4. "Lewis Hallam (see Columbia Encyclopedia text)". encyclopedia.com (a website run by HighBeam Research). Retrieved 15 January 2010.
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