session of private persons, there is one in the Heralds’ College. He died unmarried, and was buried at Goosetrey, 25 Nov. 1659.
[Ormerod's Cheshire (ed. Helsby) i. lxxxix, iii. 137.]
BOOTH, JUNIUS BRUTUS (1796–1852), actor, was born on 1 May 1796 in the parish of St. Pancras, London. Through his grandmother, Elizabeth Wilkes, he claimed to be related to the famous John Wilkes, after whom one of his sons was named, and to whose influence was possibly owing his own baptismal name and that of his brother, Algernon Sidney Booth. Richard Booth, his father, the son of a silversmith, left England while a youth for the purpose of fighting against his country in the war of American independence, was captured, escaped apparently all punishment, and settled peacefully in Queen Street, Bloomsbury, as a lawyer. After learning printing, studying law in his father's office, accepting a commission as midshipman on board the Boxer (Captain Blyth or Bligh), and fortunately for himself not joining the ship, which soon after went down with all hands except one, Booth made in 1813 his first appearance as an amateur in a wretched little theatre in Pancras Street, Tottenham Court Road, in which he played Frank Rochdale in ‘John Bull.’ His first essay as a regular actor was made on 13 Dec. of the same year, under the management of Mr. Penley, as Campillo, a servant, in the ‘Honeymoon,’ at a theatre in Peckham. He was then transferred to the theatre in Deptford, and, after an incapacitating attack of illness, he joined (1814) his manager at Ostend, and played with him there and at various towns in Belgium and Holland. After undergoing many hardships, and, according to one biographical sketch, forming in Brussels a matrimonial or quasi-matrimonial connection, he returned to England and obtained an engagement for the winter season of 1815 at Covent Garden. During the summer he played at Worthing. On 18 Oct. he made, as Sylvius in ‘As you like it,’ his first regular appearance in London, the occasion being the début as Rosalind of Mrs. Alsop, a daughter of Mrs. Jordan. He was kept steadily in the background, and at the close of the season he retired to Worthing, at the theatre of which town he became acting manager. Here and at Brighton he played Sir Giles Overreach and other leading characters with sufficient ability to lead the management of Covent Garden to engage him as a rival to Kean. On Wednesday, 12 Feb. 1817, he appeared as Richard III, and, in spite of some opposition attributed to the partisans of Kean, obtained a success. After repeating the performance the following evening, he broke with Mr. Harris, the manager, on a question of payment. Kean, who heard the news of this dispute, visited Booth and brought him to Drury Lane, where liberal terms were offered and accepted. On Thursday, 20 Feb. 1817, accordingly, Booth appeared at Drury Lane as Iago to the Othello of Kean. The performance was not repeated. Finding that the management did not intend to allow him equal chances with Kean, and suspecting, probably not without cause, that the engagement was made for the purpose of shelving him, he again changed front, and concluded with the Covent Garden management an engagement on the same terms that were given him at Drury Lane. When, accordingly, on 22 Feb. an immense audience assembled to greet his reappearance at Drury Lane, Booth was not forthcoming, and an apology for his absence had to be made. The result of a proceeding by which in the course of less than a fortnight he had disappointed audiences at the two leading houses was to raise a great pother and to assign Booth a prominence he was unable subsequently to maintain. His resemblance to Kean in appearance, stature, and voice, and his close adherence to the style of his great predecessor, had attracted much attention to him, and his acting had met with general approval. Upon the reappearance of Booth at Covent Garden on 25 April a storm of opposition was encountered. ‘Richard III’ was acted in dumb show, and the attempted explanation of Fawcett, the stage manager, and the proffered apologies of Booth were rejected. Booth then printed his apology, and essayed again on 1 March to play Richard. A second tumult ensued. On the 3rd he was more successful, and the playbills for that date contain his thanks to the public which had pardoned him. Proceedings against the Covent Garden management and against Booth were commenced by the Drury Lane management, but were discontinued as Booth sank from the place he had occupied. On 8 March Booth played Sir Giles Overreach, and shortly afterwards appeared as Posthumus in ‘Cymbeline,’ Fitzharding in the ‘Curfew,’ and Mortimer in the ‘Iron Chest.’ From this period his fame declined, until, when for his benefit he appeared as Richard and Jerry Sneak in the ‘Mayor of Garratt,’ the house was almost empty. After playing during the following years at various country theatres and at the Coburg, he appeared on 7 Aug. 1820 as Iago at Drury Lane, supporting Kean, who was playing a farewell engagement previous to his departure for
