William Shaftoe Robertson

William Shaftoe Robertson (c. 1799–1872) was a British actor and theatre manager. He was the nephew of Fanny Robertson, manager of the Lincoln theatre circuit, and her husband Thomas Shaftoe Robertson.

William Shaftoe Robertson
Bornc. 1799
Diedc1872
NationalityEnglish
Occupationactor and manager
Known forThe Robertson theatre company
Spouse(s)
Margharetta Elisabetta Marinus
​
​
(m. 1828)​
Children22, including Thomas William Robertson and Madge Kendal

Life and career

Robertson was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire.[1] He became a lawyer, as a young man, then performed with his family in the eight Lincolnshire and nearby theatres that they managed.[2] His first appearance at the Georgian theatre in Wisbech (later the Angles Theatre), was as Rover in the comedy Wild Oats opposite Fanny Robertson (stagename Mrs T. Robertson) as Lady Amaranthe on 4 June 1824.[3]

In 1828 he married the Danish-born actress Margharetta Elisabetta née Marinus (died 1876). Her father taught languages in London, and she spoke English with no trace of a foreign accent. At the age of 17, she had joined the Robertsons' company, where she met Robertson.[2] They had a reported 22 children, many of whom appeared in juvenile roles on the stage.[4] Of these, T. W. Robertson (later a playwright), Fanny Robertson (1830–1903), Edward Shaftoe Robertson (1844–1871), James Robertson, Georgiana Robertson (1840–1913), Frederick Craven Shaftoe Robertson (1846–1879) and Madge Kendal[5][6] carried on the profession into adulthood.[7]

When his aunt Fanny Robertson retired in 1843, Robertson succeeded her as manager of the Robertson company of actors and their Lincolnshire Circuit theatres.[8][1] In early 1850, the family performed in Colne and then moved on to Burnley, Lancashire for a week in a temporary theatre, the Temperance Hall, in which they presented The Stranger (an English translation of the 1798 play Menschenhass und Reue (Misanthropy and Repentance) by August von Kotzebue), King Lear, She Stoops to Conquer and William Tell.[9] In 1851, the family was back in Burnley.[10]

By the early 1850s, Lincolnshire theatres had gradually become financially unviable,[n 1] and Robertson moved his family to London, where he became joint manager of the Marylebone Theatre.[12] The family moved to Bristol in 1855.[13] Over the next decade, the Robertsons and their children played steadily in provincial theatres.[2]

Robertson's last appearances were with his wife and his daughter Fanny in Planché's Plot and Passion on 28 January, and Sheridan's The School for Scandal and John Baldwin Buckstone's farce A Rough Diamond on 30 January 1867, in Boston, Lincolnshire.[14][15] In 1871, Robertson was living with his wife, daughter Fanny and a granddaughter in St Pancras, Middlesex.[16]

He died on 4 December 1872 at his residence in Russell Square, London, at the age of 73.[17]

Notes
  1. In a 1900 biography of the Kendals, T. Edgar Pemberton attributes the decline of such provincial theatre circuits to the effect of the railways, which "destroyed the comparative isolation of the small from the larger towns … local interests became absorbed in the now accessible wonders to be seen in the great world outside".[11]

References
  1. "History". www.anglestheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  2. Foulkes, Richard. "Kendal, Dame Madge [real name Margaret Shafto Robertson; married name Margaret Shafto Grimston (1848–1935), actress"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2019 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  3. Handbill in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum collection
  4. Wright, p. 261
  5. "Craven Robertson". Stamford Mercury. 27 June 1879.
  6. "Intelligence". Stamford Mercury. 13 October 1871.
  7. "A theatrical company". Stamford Mercury. 27 May 1864.
  8. "Wisbech". The Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. 1 April 1843. p. 3.
  9. "The Drama". The Preston Chronicle. 29 March 1851. p. 6.
  10. The 1851 census states that William and Elizabeth were living with their children Margaret Shaftoe Robertson, age 3, Georgiana 14, William 11, Henry 10, and Frederick 4. 1851 England Census for Margret Robertson, Lancashire, Burnley, Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  11. Pemberton, pp. 20–21
  12. Pemberton, p. 33
  13. Kendal, p. 21
  14. "Theatricals". Stamford Mercury. 18 January 1867. p. 4.
  15. "Theatricals". Stamford Mercury. 1 February 1867. p. 4.
  16. The 1871 census records in St. Pancras, Middlesex, show Robertson, aged 72, born in Stamford, Lincs.; his wife, Elizabeth, 67; daughter Fanny M Hunter, 39, widowed actress, born Wisbech; granddaughter Harriett Hunter, 16, actress, born Wolverhampton; and Sarah Barton 23, servant, born Colchester.
  17. "W Robertson". Stamford Mercury. 13 December 1872. p. 4.

Sources
  • Kendal, Madge (1933). Rudolph De Cordova (ed.). Dame Madge Kendal by Herself. London: John Murray. OCLC 2325826.
  • Pemberton, T. Edgar (1900). The Kendals: A Biography. London: Pearson. OCLC 684413482.
  • Wright, Neil R. (2016). Treading the Boards: Actors and Theatres in Georgian Lincolnshire. Lincoln: Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology. ISBN 978-0-90-358255-1.
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