Fitzwilliam, Fanny Elizabeth

1801

1854

She was born in 1801 in a dwelling attached to the Dover theatre, where her father Robert Copeland was manager. She appeared on stage about the age of three in “The Stranger”, and at 12 she played the piano in a concert at Margate. Then, after appearing for a few years as a leading actress at Dover, in 1817 she made her London debut at the Haymarket Theatre, appearing as Lucy in “The Review” and Cicely in “The Beehive”. Fanny acted at the Olympic and Surrey theatres and on 5 December 1821 made her first appearance at Drury Lane, as Fanny in “Maid or Wife”. After engagements in Dublin and the provinces, she appeared at the Adelphi in plays of John Baldwin Buckstone, and in 1832 she took over management of Sadler’s Wells. In 1837 she went to America, where she enjoyed a great success. Back in England by 1844, she acted again in provincial towns. Fanny then returned to the Haymarket, where she was engaged until her death from cholera on 11 November 1854 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. Her marriage to the actor Edward Fitzwilliam (1788-1852) produced the musical director and composer Edward Francis Fitzwilliam and the actress Kathleen Fitzwilliam. An actress of the Mrs Jordan school, Mrs Fitzwilliam was excellent in country girls and Irish peasants. She also was highly regarded as Lady Teazle and as Starlight Bess in Buckstone’s “Flowers of the Forest”. At the time of her death she was betrothed to Buckstone. (DNB)