Miss Foote: Maria Foote (1797-1867)

Maria Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, better known as Maria Foote was born in Plymouth, where her father was a theatre manager. In 1810, she appeared as Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, at her father’s theatre where she also played as Susan Ashfield in Thomas Morton’s Speed the Plough. In May 1814, she appeared at the Covent Garden Theatre as Amanthis in Elizabeth Inchbald’s Child of Nature. She was very successful in this role.

 

Her singing and dancing, and her way of accompanying herself on the harp, guitar and pianoforte added to her popularity. Her theatrical career ended in 1831, the year in which she married Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington.

 

 

 

For further information, please see Wikipedia.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, January 2020.