Howard Athenaeum, under J. H. Hackett's management. In August
1S47, he joined the Boston Museum, with which theatre he has ever
since been connected, and where he has acted almost all the chief parts,
of their day, in the lines of low and eccentric comedy and old
men. The finest Touchstone on the stage of this period — grave,
quaint, and sadly thoughtful behind the smile and the jest — an ad-
mirable Polonius, great in Sir Peter Teazle, and of powers that range
easily from Caleb Plummet to Ecclcs, and are adequate to both ex-
tremes of comic eccentricity and melting pathos, this comedian presents
a shining exemplification of high and versatile abilities worthily used,
and brilliant laurels modestly worn. — \Y. W.



126 THE JEFFERSONS.



JEFFERSON THE SECOND AND FRANCIS.

" My next excursion was to Alexandria, where I completed
my engagements under the direction of Messrs. Francis and
Jefferson. I cannot reflect on the conduct of these gentlemen
without comparing it with my own : nothing has impeached
their characters during their residence in the United States,
but much has occurred to exalt them. No instability has
marked their dispositions ; with steady industry, perseverance,
and prudence, they have attached themselves closely to the
profession they had chosen and the city which was originally
their promised land, and in which they are now (1813) in
happy possession of competency and respect ; — the one, the
friend and protector of the orphan ; the other, the father of a
numerous family, under the guardianship of himself and his
amiable consort, well educated and well instructed. Neither
one nor the other entered this new world (they will pardon
the remark) with the advantages I possessed, nor has either of
them received a fourth part of the sum of money that I have,
from the patronage of Americans. What, then, has made
them rich ? Prudence. What has reduced my state ? Impru-
dence. Jefferson ! the amiable father of an amiable offspring ;
Francis ! the protector of the unprotected, permit me to offer
you, poor as it is, my homage." — An Apology for the Life of
James Fennel!, pp. 418, 419.



ELIZABETH JEFFERSON.

[Mrs. C. J. B. FISHER.]



We are a queen (or long have dreamed so), certain

The daughter of a king"

Shakespeare.



ELIZABETH JEFFERSON.



The reminiscences of this lady have been incorpo-
rated into the sketch of her father, and it will not be
amiss to supplement them with some account of their
author. Elizabeth Jefferson was born in Philadelphia,
about the year 1810, and in the spring of 1S27, when
seventeen years of age, was brought out at the Chest-
nut Street Theatre as Rosina, in " The Spanish Bar-
ber." * She had a lovely voice, and had been carefully
instructed and trained in music ; but her timidity and
inexperience on the first night marred her efforts, and
this appearance was accounted a failure. Cowell, who
preceded Wemyss in the stage management of the
Chestnut, when Warren and Wood dissolved their
partnership, in 1826, had the superintendence of this
debut, and he has left this record of it, in his " Thirty
Years," Vol. II. p. 9: —

" During this season, 1826-27, 1 had the gratification
of introducing two of the ' fairest of creation,' as can-
didates for histrionic fame — a daughter of Old Warren,
and a daughter of Old Jefferson. They were cousins,
and about the same age. Hetty Warren had decidedly

* " The Spanish Barber." Comedy, with songs, by George Colman.
Pa market, 1777. Taken from " Le Barbicre de Seville," by P. A. C.
de Beaumarchais. — W. W.



I30 THE JEFFERSONS.

the best of the race for favor at the start, but Elizabeth
Jefferson soon shot ahead, and maintained a decided
superiority. Poor girls ! They were both born and
educated in affluence, and both lived to see their par-
ents sink to the grave in comparative poverty. Hetty
married a big man named Willis — a very talented mu-
sician — much against the will of her doting father ;
and, like most arrangements of the kind, it proved a
sorry one. Elizabeth became the wife of Sam Chap-
man, in 1828. He was a very worthy fellow, with both
tact and talent in his favor, and her lot promised un-
bounded happiness."

Wemyss, who saw this first appearance, gives con-
current testimony as to the attempt and its results, in
the thirteenth chapter of his " Theatrical Biography " :
" For the benefit of Mr. Jefferson, whose name was
sure to fill the house, his daughter, Miss E. Jefferson,
made her first appearance upon any stage as Rosina, in
'The Spanish Barber.' If Miss Warren was the best
debutante I had ever seen, Miss Jefferson was decidedly
the worst. She spoke so low, and so completely lost all
self-possession, that, had it not been for her father,
she would scarcely have escaped derision. The only re-
deeming point was her song of "An old Man would be
Wooing," in which she was feebly encored. From such
an unfavorable beginning little was to be expected. But,
in the race commenced between Miss Warren and her-
self, although distanced in the first attempt, she soon
outstripped her rival in her future career, rising step by
step, until she became, as Mrs. S. Chapman, the lead-
ing actress of the American stage, in the Park Theatre



ELIZABE TH JEFFERSON. \ 3 1

of New York, justly admired by every frequenter of the
theatre."

After this dull beginning Miss Jefferson put forth her
energies with redoubled exertion, and — at the Chest-
nut, and in those wandering theatrical expeditions with
which her renowned father felt constrained to close his
professional career — she soon acquired the experience
essential to her success. Thus equipped she came for-
ward at the Park Theatre, New York, on September
1 st, 1834, in the character of Ophelia; and here she
was almost immediately accepted as an actress of the
finest powers and the foremost rank. She had in
the mean time been married, in Philadelphia, to Mr.
Samuel Chapman, a young and clever actor, who
seems to have been a favorite with " Old Jefferson " ;
but he had died * shortly after their marriage, and she
was now a widow. The bills announced her as Mrs. S.
Chapman. The stock company in which she took her
place included Messrs. John K. Mason, H. B. Harri-
son, John H. Clarke, John Jones, Peter Richings, Henry
Placide, W. H. Latham, John Fisher, T. H. Blakeley,
William Wheatley, Thomas Placide, Gilbert Nexsen, J.

* Samuel Chapman. — " The Reading mail stage, with nine male
passengers and the driver, was stopped by three foot-pads, a few miles
from Philadelphia, in the middle of the night. . . . Chapman, who was
extremely clever at dramatizing local matters, took a ride out to the
scene of the robbery, the better to regulate the action of a piece he was
preparing on the subject, was thrown from his horse, and slightly grazed
his shoulder. He had to wear that night a suit of brass armor, and, the
weather being excessively hot, he wore it next his skin, which increased
the excoriation, and it was supposed the verdigris had poisoned the
wound. At any rate, he died in a week after the accident" ... — Cow-
cWs Thirty Years, Vol. 2d, chapter <jth.



132 THE JEFFERSONS.

Povey, Russell, and Hayden, together with

the lovely Mrs. Gurner, Mrs. Wheatley, Mrs. Vernon,
Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Durie, Mrs. Archer, and the
Misses Turnbull. J. W. Wallack acted Hamlet, to open
the season, and in its course Sheridan Knowles appeared
in a round of his own characters. Mrs. Chapman's suc-
cess was uncommonly brilliant. " No actress who ever
preceded or followed her on the Park stage," says Mr.
Ireland, " excelled her in general ability, and she was
the last stock actress attached to the establishment fully
competent to sustain equally well the leading characters
in the most opposite walks of the drama. Devoid of
stage trickery, artless, unaffected, and perfectly true to
nature, not beautiful in feature, but with a countenance
beaming with beauty of expression, in whatever charac-
ter cast she always succeeded in throwing a peculiar
charm around it, and in making herself admired and
appreciated. Her performance of Julia, in 'The
Hunchback,' first stamped her reputation as an artist
of the highest rank. Her engagement was a continued
triumph, and her retirement from the stage, in the
spring of 1835, on her marriage with Mr. Richardson,
a source of deep and earnest regret."

The marriage to which Mr. Ireland thus refers was
contracted with Mr. Augustus Richardson, of Baltimore.
Cowell mentions him, as " a clever young printer,"
whom he met, in company with Junius Brutus Booth,
at Annapolis, in 1829. Mr. Richardson, like his mat-
rimonial predecessor, died suddenly, and in conse-
quence of an accidental fall ; and his widow, returning
to the stage, was again seen at the old Park. She sub-



ELIZABETH JEFFERSON. I 33

sequently went into the South, joining her brother (Jef-
ferson the Third) and other relatives and connections ;
and, after her brother's death, in 1842, she managed for
a time the theatre at Mobile ; and at this place, in
1S49, she was married to Mr. Charles J. B. Fisher,
whose death, in 1S59, aged fifty-four, left her again a
widow. These bereavements were not her worst af-
flictions. One of her sons was murdered in New Or-
leans, and another (Vernon by name) became insane
from a fall, and, after lingering for many years in abject
lunacy, expired in an asylum. Her own death is stated,
in Brown's " History of the American Stage " (p. 310),
to have occurred in 1853, but this was an error. A
strong will, an intrepid spirit, and a magnificent consti-
tution, have sustained her to the present time in pa-
tience and steadfast industry. For many years this
lady has been a teacher of music ; and one of her
daughters — Miss Clara Fisher, bearing the name of
her famous aunt, now Mrs. Maeder — has been favor-
ably known on the New York stage as a vocalist.
Charles J. B. Fisher's first appearance on any stage
was made at the Mobile Theatre, in 1842, as Dazzle,
in " London Assurance."

The musical style of Elizabeth Richardson was based
on that of the beautiful Garcia (Mine. Malibran), whom
she saw at the New York Park Theatre in the season of
1825, having been sent over from Philadelphia expressly
to observe and study this incomparable model. When
only eleven years of age she was elected an honorary
member of the " Musical bund Society," of Philadel-
phia. John Sinclair, the famous vocalist, father of the



134 THE JEFFERSONS.

lady who became the wife of Edwin Forrest, repeatedly
said that he considered her the best singer in America,
and more than once offered her a star position in his
musical company. Had she but adhered to either the
lyric or dramatic stage, and resisted the allurements of
ideal domesticity, there is no limit to the eminence she
might have reached. Long before she came to the
Park Theatre, Henry J. Finn, the comedian, had as-
sured Edmund Simpson, the manager, that she was
beyond all rivalry as a comedy actress ; and Finn had
already offered her the leading business, on her own
terms, at the St. Charles Theatre, New Orleans. Ty-
rone Power had also spoken of her with unstinted ad-
miration. Edwin Forrest, in whose " support " she had
acted at Washington, declared her to be the best tragic
actress on the stage : " She is the best Lady Macbeth
we have," he said, "and the only Pauline." Some-
body asked Simpson one day how he had happened to
hear of her as an actress. " I have heard of nobody
else for two years," answered the manager — to whom,
indeed, it seemed that the Admirable Crichton had come
again, in petticoats. During the Park engagement of
Sheridan Knowles she acted in all the pieces produced
for him, — " The Hunchback," " William Tell," "Vir-
ginia," "The Wife," etc., — and the famous author
was fascinated with her loveliness and her genius.
Ever afterward, in writing to her from England, he ad-
dressed her as Lady Julia Rochdale, and signed his let-
ters " Your father, Walter." It was as Julia that she
made her first hit at the Park ; and her popularity there
was so great that every omission of her name from



ELIZABETH JEFFERSON. 1 35

the bill would cause a serious depression in the receipts.
Yet this actress was only a member of the stock com-
pany, receiving a salary of $30 a week ; and the receipts
from her farewell benefit performance were only $882.
She was the original, in America, of many of the first
and finest characters in comedy, vaudeville, and bur-
lesque — of Julia, in "The Hunchback," Pauline, in
" The Lady of Lyons," Marianne, in " The Wife," Ger-
trude, in " The Loan of a Lover," Bess, in " The Beg-
gar of Bethnal Green," LyJia, in "The Love Chase,"
Eliza, in " The Dumb Belle," Lissette Gerstein, in " The
Swiss Cottage," Gabrielle, in "Tom Noddy's Secret,"
Perseus, in " The Deep, Deep Sea," Oliver Twist, in
the play of that name, made from the novel by Charles
Dickens, and Smike, in " Nicholas Nickleby," from the
same author. Among her other characters were Amina,
Rosina, Cinderella, Vettoria, in " The Knight of the
Golden Fleece," Madame dc Manneville, in " Married
Lovers," Therese, in " Secret Service," Esmeralda, m
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame," Mrs. Lynx, in
"Married Life," Mrs. Bud, in "My Wife's Mother,"
Mimi. in " The Pet of the Petticoats," Helen Worrett,
Myrtillo, in " The Broken Sword," Maria, in " Of Age
To-morrow," and Jenny, in "The Widow's Victim."
The complete list of her representations would fill
many pages. Her range extended from Lady Macbeth
to Little Pickle, and she was excellent in all that she
attempted. Time makes a sad havoc with beauty and
fame. In other years, when this lady walked in Broad-
way, her footsteps were followed by the admiring glances
of hundreds of worshippers. To-day her slight and



136



THE JEFFERSONS.



faded figure, draped in its garments of grief, flits by un-
noticed in the crowd. It would be difficult to point to
a career which better illustrates than this one the muta-
bility of human happiness and worldly fortune and the
evanescent character of theatrical renown.



JEFFERSON THE THIRD.
1804- 1842.



" He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet ; he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten ; one to whom
Long patience hath such mild composure ^recii
That patience now doth seem a thing of which
He hath no need."

' ' He is retired as noontide dew

Or fountain in a noon-day grove ;
And you must love him ere to you
He will seem "worthy of your love."

Wordsworth.



JEFFERSON THE THIRD.



Tins was an uneventful life, and the story of it takes
the form of a tribute to singular beauty and worth of
personal character rather than of a narrative of achieve-
ments that concerned the world. Joseph Jefferson, the
third of this line of actors, was born at Philadelphia, in
1804, and in that city he received his education and
grew to manhood. While a boy he did nut evince a
taste for the stage, but preferred the study of architec-
ture and drawing ; and this he pursued diligently and
with success. In these branches, and also in painting,
he was instructed by Coyle,* an English scenic artist of
repute at that period. There is no positive record of
his first appearances upon the stage, but it is remem-
bered that he sometimes played little parts, such as the
First Murderer in " Mat beth," while yet a youth. His
name appears on the play-bills of the Chestnut Street
Theatre as early as 1N14, and it is known that when
finally he had adopted the dramatic profession he made
himself a good actor in the line of old men. In 1824
he was a member of the dramatic company of the Chat-

* Rorkrt ('(«', i 1 was killed by an accidental fall from a wagon, his
horse having suddenl) started in fright. A performance for the b
of his widow occurred at the Bowery Theatre, New York, August 22d,
rS27. — W. W.



140 THE JEFFERSONS.

ham Garden Theatre, New York, under the manage-
ment of Mr. Henry Barriere. This company comprised
Henry Wallack, Geo. H. Barrett, Thomas Burke, Alex-
ander Simpson, W. Robertson, Henry George More-
land, John A. Stone (who afterwards wrote " Metamora,"
etc.), A. J. Allen, W. Anderson, C. Durang, Spiller, Som-
erville, Williamson, Collins, and Oliff (once prompter
at the old Park, and whose descendants are now (1881)
esteemed residents of Castleton, Staten Island), with
Thomas Kilner for stage-manager. The ladies were
Mrs. Entwistle (who had been Mrs. Mason, and who
became Mrs. Crooke), Miss Henry (afterwards famous
as Mrs. G. H. Barrett), Mrs. Caroline Placide Waring,
Mrs. T. Burke, Mrs. Walstein, Mrs. C. Durang, Mrs.
H. Wallack, Mrs. Kilner, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Spiller, Mrs.
P. M. Clark, and Miss Oliff. The theatre was opened
that season (its third) with "The Soldier's Daughter"
and " Raising the Wind," and the casts of the night,
May 17th, set Jefferson's name against the characters
of Woodlcy and Fainwould. His acting on this and
subsequent occasions was thought to give a promise
of excellence. He did not long remain in New York,
but went back to Philadelphia ; and there, and in
Washington, Baltimore, and the region round about,
pursued, discursively, his theatrical labors. In 1826, at
the age of twenty-two, he was married to Mrs. Thomas
Burke, whom he had first met at the Chatham Garden
Theatre, and who was eight years his senior. This was
a " love-match," and the marriage proved exceptionally
happy and fortunate. After his father quitted Philadel-
phia, in 1 S 29-30, he managed for the old gentleman, in



JEFFERSON THE THIRD. 141

Washington, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and other cities,
and he remained with him till the last. During the
season of 1831-32 he managed the theatre in Wash-
ington. During the seasons of 1835-37 he was con-
nected, successively, with the Franklin Theatre, at No.
175 Chatham Street, New York, and with Niblo's Gar-
den. At the Franklin he was scene-painter as well as
actor. " Mobb the Outlaw, or Jemmy Twitcher in
France" ("Robert Macaire "), was given there, on
May 2d, 1S36, with new scenery by him. On May
25th he acted King Arthur, in the travestie of "Tom
Thumb." On June 1st "The Hunchback" was per-
formed for his benefit, with his sister Elizabeth as Julia,
and with his wife in the bill, for a song. The latter had
been absent about ten years from the New York stage,
and it was now observed that her voice and person had
been impaired by the ravages of time. On March 1st,
1837, Jefferson took another benefit, the programme
comprising "The Lady of the Lake," "The Forty
Thieves," and a vaudeville entitled "The Welsh Girl,"
in the latter of which pieces he represented a person-
age styled Sir Owen Ap Griffith. Mrs. Jefferson ap-
peared as Blanche of D von, and as Morgiana. Charles
Burke, her son, then a lad of fifteen, took part in the
exi n ises, singing a song entitled "The Beautiful Boy."
Jefferson the Fourth, then eight years old, was present
at this performance, for a few weeks, during the sum-
mer of 1837, Jefferson and John Sefton managed a
vaudeville compan) at Niblo's, and produced musical
farces. Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Knight, Mrs.
Gurner, Mrs. Henry. Mrs. Watts, Mrs. Maeder (Clara



142 THE JEFFERSONS.

Fisher), Mrs. Richardson, Miss Jane Anderson, Alexina
Fisher (afterwards Mrs. Lewis Baker), and Miss De
Bar (afterwards Mrs. J. B. Booth, Jr.), appeared in this
troupe, and the males were Jefferson, Sefton, Plumer,
Henry, Th. Bishop, Thayer, Lewellen, Thoman, J. W.
Wallack, Jr., Edwin, Latham, and P. Williams. The
season ended on September 16th, 1837, and that proved
Jefferson's farewell of the New York stage. He pro-
ceeded with his family to Chicago, there joining his
brother-in-law, Alexander Mackenzie ; and the rest of
his career — made up of much wandering and many
vicissitudes — was accomplished in the West and South,
through an exceedingly primitive period of the Ameri-
can theatre. He seldom met with prosperity, but he
seems to have possessed the true Mark Tapley tem-
perament, and his spirits always rose when his fortunes
were at the worst. He was manager, actor, scene-
painter, stage-carpenter, — anything and everything
connected with the art and business of the stage. He
understood it all, and in every relation that he sustained
toward it he was faithful, thorough, and adequate to
his duties. The dramatic chronicles give but little at-
tention to his proceedings ; yet they bear one concur-
rent and invariable testimony to his personal charm,
winning simplicity, and intellectual and moral worth.
His trials were bravely met ; his hardships were pa-
tiently borne ; and, to the end, he labored in steadfast
cheerfulness and hope, making good use of his talents
and opportunities, and never repining at his lot.

"The father of our Rip Van Winkle" writes the
veteran manager, John T. Ford, " was one of the most



JEFFERSON THE THIRD. 1 43

lovable men that ever lived. He acted occasionally,
painted almost constantly, and when he had a theatre,
as sometimes happened, he managed his business with
that careless amiability, almost amounting to weakness,
that was inseparable from his nature. Once, when he
was managing in Washington, he was so poor that,
wanting Edwin Forrest to act there, he had to walk to
Baltimore, forty miles, and did so, to solicit him. He
enjoyed life, in a dreamy way, and his only anxiety was
for his children."

Another kindly picture of him is afforded in the fol-
lowing remarks by his sister Elizabeth : " My brother
Joe was a gentle, good man, true and kind in every re-
lation of life. He was very like his father, — so much
so that, in the play of ' The Exile,' * where the latter had
to dance in domino, Joe would often, to save his father
the trouble, put on the dress and dance the quadrille,
and no spectator could tell the difference, or was aware
of the change of persons. He was fond of his fireside,
ne in adversity, humble in prosperity, affectionate
in temperament, and beloved by all who knew him.
Painting was his great passion. He became a very
good actor in old men. 1 [e was an inveterate quiz. I
have seen him, — when he was manager as well as ac-
tor, — after making some sort of a mistake on the stage,
fix his composed and solemn gaze magisterially upon
some one of the supers, till the poor fellow came really
to think that the blunder had been made by himself,
and trembled lest he might be at once dis< barged. Joe

* "The I oi T!u Desert of Siberia." Musical Play, in three

acts. By Frederic Reynolds. Covent Garden, Nov. 10th, 1S1S. — YV.YV.



144 THE JEFFERSONS.

married Mrs. Burke, who was a great singer. No voice
that I ever heard could compare with hers, except, pos-
sibly, that of Parepa. My father feared that, as Joe
was so much younger than his wife, the match might
not turn out well ; but there never was a happier
marriage. Indeed, it could not be otherwise ; for Joe
was all sunshine, and she loved him, and that says
all."

Ireland speaks of Jefferson as " admirably costumed
and skilfully made up, appearing at times the living por-
trait of his father " ; but intimates that, as an actor, he
did not fulfil the promise of his early efforts. The truth
is that he was a quiet, unobtrusive, unambitious gentle-
man ; and the fact that he did not take a high rank in
the public estimation was mainly because he did not
care to make the essential effort. His philosophic,
drifting, serene disposition is aptly illustrated in this
incident. An old friend of his, hearing that he had met
with great misfortune in business, and, in fact, become
bankrupt, called at his dwelling to cheer him, and was
told by Mrs. Jefferson that her husband had gone a fish-
ing. He expressed surprise, and, with some vague ap-
prehension that all might not be well, went down to the
river in search of him. The object of his solicitude
was soon found, sitting composedly in a shady nook on
the bank of the Schuylkill, humming a pleasant air, and
sketching the ruins of a tumble-down mill on the oppo-
site shore. Cordial greetings exchanged, the sympa-
thetic visitor could not conceal his astonishment that a
crushing misfortune should be accepted so cheerfully.
" Not at all," said Jefferson ; " I have lost everything,



JEFFERSON THE THIRD. 145

and I am so poor now that I really cannot afford to let
anything worry me."

A few of the characters that were acted by Jefferson
the Third are specified in the subjoined list : —

Polonins. In the unconsciously humorous sapience and half-
senile prolixity of this part he was exceptionally excellent.