Mardyn, Charlotte

1789

One of the facts that seems certain in William Oxberry’s overblown memoir of Charlotte Mardyn in his “Dramatic Biography” (1825) is that she was born in poor circumstances in Ireland in 1789. She served as a housemaid in Plymouth in the early 1800s and married a Mr Mardyn. She was acting in London about 1811 and at Bath in 1814. In September 1815 she made her first appearance at Drury Lane as Amelia Widenhaim in “Lovers’ Vows” and then acted Albina Mandevill in “The Will”. Other roles in London included Sylvia in “The Recruiting Officer”, Peggy in “The Country Girl” and Jacintha in “The Suspicious Husband”. In Oxberry’s opinion she was unfit to play leading comedy roles at metropolitan theatres. Her first husband seems to have disappeared, and she took up with a ‘gentleman of rank and fortune’ – a ‘Baron R——,’ whom she may have married. Oxberry claims that despite the rumours about her many ‘errors,’ she was ‘more sinned against than sinning.’