Mellon, Harriot

1778?

1837

Harriot Mellon (or possibly Malone) may have been born in 1778, the daughter, perhaps, of Lieutenant Matthew Mellon and Sarah (last name unknown). The earliest certain theatrical information we have of her is a playbill dated 16 October 1787: she acted, with great success, Little Pickle in “The Spoiled Child” with Thomas Bibby’s troupe at Ulverstone. With her in the company was her mother Sarah, now Mrs Entwisle (her first husband had died), who worked backstage and seems to have spent much of her time running Harriot’s life. The youngster sang, danced and acted children’s roles and then more mature parts as she grew up, and the Entwisles joined Stanton’s company at Stafford and neighbouring towns. Her repertoire in the early 1790s included Cowslip in “The Agreeable Surprise”, Celia and Audrey in “As You Like It”, Lydia Languish in “The Rivals” and Beatrice in “Much Ado about Nothing”. She was seen by the Drury Lane manager Richard Brinsley Sheridan in October 1794, and within a year Miss Mellon was in London. Her debut at Drury Lane was probably as Lydia Languish, on 30 October 1795, though she had been an extra in “Lodoiska” earlier that month. A critic wrote that she was ‘strikingly handsome, her voice musical, her action powerful when not checked by fear, and there were some tones of archness …’ In the Drury Lane company was Dorothy Jordan, whose line was almost exactly that which Harriot was developing; Mrs Jordan was a splendid model but at the same time a roadblock in the younger player’s path. Some of Harriot’s roles her first season in London were Lady Godiva in “Peeping Tom”, Lucy in “The Recruiting Officer” and Lady Blanche in “King John” – as well as Amanthis in “The Child of Nature”, which she played for Mrs Jordan when Dorothy was ill, and Penelope in “The Romp”, for Maria Theresa de Camp, when she needed a replacement. The singer-actor Michael Kelly noted how valuable Harriot was at Drury Lane and how esteemed she was by her colleagues. She spent the summer of 1796 acting at Liverpool, was treated kindly by Sarah Siddons, who had a brief engagement there, and Harriot played a number of important characters, including Ophelia in “Hamlet”, Hero in “Much Ado”, Estifania in “Rule a Wife and Have a Wife”, Rosalind in “As You Like It”, the title role in “Polly Honeycomb” and Miranda in “The Tempest”. When she returned to London in September one critic said she ‘improves amazingly.’ Miss Mellon returned to Liverpool for summer engagements and kept developing her own style of playing flirts, mischievous wenches, charming soubrettes, and hoydenish country girls. How much her mother had to do with the development of her daughter’s career we cannot tell, but her influence was evidently considerable, and by 1804 Harriot was beginning to declare her independence. Her stepfather, who had been serving in the Drury Lane band, was dismissed and, with Mrs Entwisle, moved to Cheltenham, leaving Harriot in London. It was during a visit Harriot made to Cheltenham that she met, perhaps through her mother, a number of aristocrats as well as the aging, married banker Thomas Coutts, one of the richest men in England. Though she continued her stage career and benefitted greatly from Dorothy Jordan’s gradual withdrawal from the public eye, Harriot’s schedule was reduced and her relationship with Coutts developed into what was apparently a true love – though for the rest of her life there were those who saw her as avaricious. When Mrs Coutts died in 1815 Harriot left the stage, married Coutts, and began a new career as a London hostess, giving extravagant parties for her aristocratic friends and donating large sums of money to charities. Coutts died in 1822, and five years later Harriot added a title to her wealth by marrying the young Lord Burford, Duke of St Albans, who wanted her money as much as she wanted his rank. ‘I am a Duchess at last,’ she wrote her friend Sir Walter Scott. ‘All this is very flattering to an old lady … What a