Charlotte Melmoth

Charlotte Melmoth (c. 1749–1823) was an English actress who built a career on both sides of the Atlantic, earning recognition as one of the foremost tragic performers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries on the American stage. She was the estranged companion of Samuel Jackson Pratt, a clergyman-turned-actor and writer who performed under the stage name Courtney Melmoth. Whether Charlotte adopted his professional surname or whether Melmoth was her birth name and Pratt borrowed it remains a matter of biographical dispute.

Little is documented about her earliest years, though she may have been the daughter of an English farmer. According to A History of The City of Brooklyn, she was still at boarding school when she met Pratt, who drew her into a marriage of uncertain legal standing and subsequently onto the stage. Pratt's family opposed the relationship, and the couple's theatrical ventures were frequently precarious. They made their joint stage debut in Dublin in May 1773, when Melmoth appeared at the Smock Alley Theatre as Monimia in The Orphan. Later that same year, the two opened their own theatre in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, launching it with a production of The Merchant of Venice in which Melmoth played Portia opposite Pratt's Shylock. The venture collapsed within three months.

Following the failure in Drogheda, the couple relocated to London, where Melmoth's individual reputation began to take shape. In February 1774 she debuted at Covent Garden as Calista in The Fair Penitent, drawing a favorable notice from Westminster Magazine, which observed that she possessed both the physical and internal qualities of a capable actress, including feeling and sensibility. During that same Covent Garden season she played Roxana in Nathaniel Lee's The Rival Queens or The Death of Alexander the Great, Eleanor in Henry II, Hermione in A Winter's Tale, and Queen Elizabeth in Henry Jones's The Earl of Essex. In 1776 she performed in Edinburgh, where her roles included Alicia in The Tragedy of Jane Shore, Viola in Twelfth Night, Mrs. Belville in School for Wives, and Lady Macbeth — a part that would define much of her subsequent career. In November of that year she made her Drury Lane debut as Lady Macbeth, and the following February reprised Roxana in The Rival Queens alongside Mary Robinson, marking her final London appearance.

From 1777 to 1778 Melmoth and Pratt were in Paris, where they became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin. She was present when Franklin presented a portrait of himself to a Mrs. Izard without offering her a similar copy, an oversight that prompted her to compose a poem addressed to Franklin on the subject. Pratt forwarded the poem to Franklin, who replied with an apology. The couple's financial difficulties during this period were severe. Pratt had already borrowed money from a friend, Mrs. Montagu, and had attempted to borrow from Samuel Johnson. The day after Franklin's reply arrived, Pratt wrote to Franklin requesting a loan, which Franklin granted. Further requests followed on subsequent dates, including a plea on March 3 for a regular weekly or monthly allowance. A final request came in May, to which Franklin responded that the repeated appeals had proven a greater inconvenience than Pratt had perhaps appreciated, though he agreed to the additional loan. By June 22, 1778, Pratt was writing from London to acknowledge that repayment was not possible, and the friendship with Franklin appears to have ended at that point.

After two further seasons in Edinburgh, where Melmoth expanded her range to include comic roles such as Lady Sneerwell in The School for Scandal, the couple's fortunes declined again. They traveled Britain seeking engagements and at times resorted to telling fortunes for income. By 1780 they had returned to the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, making their final joint appearance there in 1781, after which they separated permanently. Melmoth then toured the principal Irish cities — Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Derry, and Belfast — before settling in Dublin. Her Irish engagements included seasons at Smock Alley from 1782 to 1783, Leoni's Capel Street Opera House from 1783 to 1784, Owenson's Fishamble Street Theatre from 1784 to 1785, a return to Smock Alley from 1785 to 1788, and a final Irish engagement at the Crow Street Theatre from 1788 to 1789. The Thespian Dictionary records that she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1786, shortly before a benefit performance in Dublin, though biographers differ on whether her motives were commercial or sincere.

In July 1789 Melmoth announced her retirement from the stage to operate a school teaching filigree work to women, but the school did not succeed. In 1793 she emigrated to the United States. Arriving in New York in March of that year, she was advertised as coming from the Theatres Royal of London and Dublin, and gave a series of recitations and Shakespearean monologues at Corre's Hotel throughout April. The London Register noted that the performances afforded considerable pleasure to audiences. Later in 1793 she joined Hodgkinson's American Company at the John Street Theatre, making her debut there on November 20 as Euphrasia in Arthur Murphy's The Grecian Daughter. Over the following five years she performed numerous leading tragic roles for the company, with Lady Macbeth remaining her most celebrated part.

Her Broadway appearances came in 1796, when she performed in The Archers and Julius Caesar, credits that place her among the earliest documented performers on the American theatrical stage. Melmoth continued to be a prominent figure in American theatrical life into the early nineteenth century, having established herself across decades of work in Britain, Ireland, and the United States.