By his wife, subsequently Mrs. Verbrugen, he had two daughters, one of whom, Susanna, is first heard of, though she had acted before, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 26 June 1704, playing, as Miss Mountfort, Damaris in Betterton's 'Amorous "Widow.' On 16 Oct. 1704 Mrs. Mountfort, which name she subsequently bore, played Betty Frisque in Crowne's ' Country Wit,' and, 14 June 1705, made, as Betty in 'Sir Solomon Single,' her first appearance at Drury Lane, where she remained, playing, among other characters, Estifania, Ophelia, Aspatia in the 'Maid's Tragedy,' Florimel in 'Marriage à la Mode,' and Elvira in the 'Spanish Fryar.' She was the original Rose in Farquhar's 'Recruiting Officer,' and Flora in Johnson's 'Country Lasses.' She is not heard of subsequently to 1718, and is said, in the edition of her father's plays, to have lately quitted the stage. She lived with Barton Booth [q. v.], who quitted her on account, it is said, of her misconduct. After this, misfortune, including loss of intellect, befell her. She is said to have once eluded her attendants, gone to Drury Lane dressed as Ophelia on a night for which 'Hamlet' was announced, to have bidden herself until the mad scene, and then, rushing on the stage before the official representative of Ophelia, to have performed the scene to the amazement of performers and audience.
[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Colley Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe; Biog. Dram.; Memoir prefixed to edition of Mountfort's plays; Life of Barton Booth by Theophilus Cibber. In Cibber's Lives of the Poets, iii. 40–7, appears the account generally received of Mountfort's death. Galt's Lives of the Players, Doran's Their Majesties' Servants, and Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 516, 5th ser. viii. 231, have also been consulted.]
MOUNTGARRET, third Viscount. [See Butler, Richard, 1578–1651.]
MOUNTIER, THOMAS (fl. 1719–1733), vocalist, whose name may be of French origin, or a corruption of the English name Mouncher, was lay vicar, and from 1719 to 1732 preceptor of the choristers, of Chichester Cathedral (Chapter Books), Before finally exchanging the cathedral for the theatre Mountier was in correspondence with the dean and chapter of Chichester , who on 12 May 1732 declared Mountier's place as lay vicar vacant. It was not until August that he resigned the preceptorship of the choristers.
It appears that Mountier sang for the first time in London at J. C. Smith's concert in Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre on 2 April 1731. An advertisement of a later date runs: 'At the request of great numbers of gentlemen and ladies, for the benefit of Thomas Mountier, the Chichester boy (who sang at Mr. Smith's concert at the theatre in L. I. F.), at the New Theatre in the Haymarket, on 6 May 1731, a concert. ... To prevent the house being crowded, no persons will be admitted without tickets' (Daily Journal). Mountier was also announced to sing in Geminiani's winter series of weekly concerts at Hickford's (Daily Post, 15 Nov. 1731), and Smith's and Lowe's benefit concerts, on 22 and 27 March 1732, songs in Italian and English (Daily Journal).
On 17 May 1732, under Dr. Arne at the New Theatre in the Haymarket, Handel's 'Acis and Galatea' was first 'performed with all the grand choruses, machines, and other decorations ... in a theatrical way' (Daily Post, 6 May), Mountier in the part of Acis, and Miss Arne as Galatea. The choruses had taken more than a year's practice (Fitzball). A second performance was announced for 19 May. Mountier was cast for the part of Phoebus, but sang that of Neptune, in Lampe's 'Britannia.' In 1733 he joined the Italian opera troupe, and sang as Adelberto in the revival of Handel's 'Ottone' (Grove).
[Information kindly supplied by Prebendary Bennett, Chichester; Fitzball's Thirty-five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life; Grove's Dict. ii. 377.]
MOUNTJOY, Barons. [See Blount, Walter, first Baron, d. 1474; Blount, William, fourth Baron, d. 1534; Blount, Charles, fifth Baron, d. 1545; Blount, Charles, eighth Baron and Earl of Devonshire, 1563–1606; Blount, Mount Joy, ninth Baron and Earl of Newport, 1597?–1665.]
MOUNTJOY, Viscount. [See Stewart, William, d. 1692.]
MOUNT-MAURICE, HERVEY de (fl. 1169), invader of Ireland, whose name appears variously as Monte Mauricii, Monte Marisco, Monte Marecy, Montmarreis, Montmorenci, Mumoreci, and Momorci, may not unreasonably be held to have belonged to the same line as the Montmorencies of France (of this there is no conclusive proof, but see Du Chesne, Histoire Généalogique de la Maison de Montmorency, pp. 9, 53, 87, 92; Montmorency-Morrès, Genealogical Memoir, passim; L'Art de Vérifier, xii. 9, and other French genealogists; the forms of the name borne by Hervey and the French Montmorencies suggest a common stock, and Hervé was a Christian name much used by the French house; in connection with this see
