Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/106

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of the Rev. John Glasse, by whom he left a son and a daughter Ellen, wife of Colonel (afterwards General) Richard Greaves, for some twenty years assistant military secretary to the commander of the forces in Ireland, and afterwards colonel of the 40th foot.

Vandeleur's portrait (Kit-Cat size) was in possession of Captain Hector S. Vavasour of Kilrush House, co. Clare, and at one time of 72 Cadogan Square, London; it was engraved by Z. Belliard.

[War Office Records; Despatches; Siborne's History of the Waterloo Campaign; Napier's Peninsular War; Thorn's Memoir of the War in India 1803–6; United Service Journal, 1849; Gent. Mag. 1850; Royal Military Calendar, 1820; private sources; Burke's Landed Gentry.]

R. H. V.

VANDENHOFF, JOHN M. (1790–1861), actor, was born in Salisbury—where his family, of Dutch extraction, coming over, it is said, in the train of William of Orange, appear to have been dyers—on 31 March 1790, and was educated at the Jesuits' college, Stonyhurst, with a view to the priesthood. For a year he taught classics in a school. His first appearance on the stage was at Salisbury, on 11 May 1808, as Osmond in the ‘Castle Spectre.’ After playing at Exeter, Weymouth, and elsewhere, with Edmund Kean, and at Swansea with John Cooper, he made his first appearance at Bath on 9 Oct. 1813 as Jaffier in ‘Venice Preserved,’ to the Pierre of Young and the Belvidera of Mrs. Campbell [see Wallis, Miss]. During the season 1813–14 he played Alcanor in ‘Mahomet,’ Freehold in ‘Country Lasses,’ Malvogli in the ‘Doubtful Son,’ and King Henry in the ‘First Part of Henry IV,’ and was the first Fernando in ‘Zulieman, or Love and Penitence,’ a two-act musical drama, on 12 March 1814, and Prince Palatine in Reynolds's ‘Orphan of the Castle’ on 17 March. In 1814 he was a member of the company at the English Opera House (Lyceum) under Arnold, where, on 4 Aug., he was the original Count d'Herleim in ‘Frederick the Great.’ The same year he made, as Rolla, his first appearance in Liverpool, where he became a great favourite, playing also in Manchester, Dublin, and elsewhere. On 9 Dec. 1820, as Vandenhoff from Liverpool, he made as Lear his first appearance at Covent Garden. He had got rid of an awkwardness that before had afflicted him, and made a good impression. During the season he was seen as Sir Giles Overreach, Coriolanus, Pizarro, and Rolla. Rob Roy, Gambia in the ‘Slave,’ and Mirandola were played for Macready, who was ill. He was also the first Durard in ‘Henriette, or the Farm of Senange,’ on 23 Feb. 1821, and Leicester in ‘Kenilworth’ on 8 March. He retired in some disgust at the treatment he received from his manager, and his name does not appear the following season. On 6 Jan. 1822 he appeared in Edinburgh as Coriolanus, returning on 2 Jan. 1826 as Macbeth, and again in February 1830, when he played Cassius and Othello. He was a favourite in Edinburgh, where his Coriolanus inspired great enthusiasm. He appears to have played there many consecutive years between January and March, his characters including, in addition to those named, Brutus, Cato, Creon, Adrastus, and Macheath. In 1834 he was seen at the Haymarket in Hamlet. In 1835–6 he played at both Drury Lane and Covent Garden, alternate nights being given to opera. On the transference of Talfourd's ‘Ion’ from Covent Garden to the Haymarket, 8 Aug. 1836, he played Adrastus—on the whole, according to Macready, a ‘very tiresome’ performance. Among his original characters were Eleazer in the ‘Jewess’ in the season of 1835–6, Louis XIV in Bulwer's ‘Duchesse de la Vallière’ (Covent Garden, 4 Jan. 1837), and Pym in Browning's ‘Strafford’ on 1 May. Of his performance in the character last named John Forster in the ‘Examiner’ said that ‘he was positively nauseous with his whining, drawling, and slouching.’ The same critic said, however, of Vandenhoff's Creon in ‘Antigone’ that it was performed with ‘solid dignity and picturesque effect.’ Later in 1837 Vandenhoff fulfilled an engagement in America.

When Macready opened Covent Garden on 24 Sept. 1838, Vandenhoff was a member of the company. He played Penruddock, The Stranger, Virginius, Master Walter in the ‘Hunchback,’ Richelieu, Falconbridge, Cassius, Hotspur, and many other parts. After 1839, when Macready's management of Covent Garden closed, Vandenhoff played chiefly in the country, although he was seen occasionally at Drury Lane.

In January 1857 Vandenhoff, with his daughter, paid a starring visit to Edinburgh, bidding it farewell on 26 Feb. as Wolsey in ‘Henry VIII,’ Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Irving playing Surrey. On 29 Oct. of the next year (1858), at Liverpool, he took farewell of the stage as Brutus and Wolsey, and died on 4 Oct. 1861 at North Bank of paralysis.

Upon Vandenhoff's first appearance in London the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ described him as possessor of a tall figure, intelligent but not strongly marked features, and a voice sufficiently powerful but rather