KNOWLES PROGENITOR BIOGRAPHIES
James Sheridan KNOWLES, M.D.
(1784 - 1862)
Knowles Progenitor -
England #52
James Sheridan Knowles, Playwright, Novelist, Actor
(based on research by Robert B. Noles from public sources)
GENEALOGY
James Sheridan Knowles, M.D. (1784 - 1862)
s/o James Knowles (1759 - 1840)
Biographical Sketch
based on article from Wikipedia
James Sheridan Knowles, M.D. (1784 - 1862), Irish dramatist and actor, was born in County Cork, Ireland. His father was the lexicographer, James Knowles (1759 - 1840). The family removed to London in 1793, and at the age of fourteen Knowles published a ballad entitled The Welsh Harper, which, set to music, was very popular. The boy's talents secured him the friendship of Hazlitt, who introduced him to Lamb and Coleridge. He served for some time in the Wiltshire and afterwards in the Tower Hamlets militia, leaving the service to become pupil of Dr Robert Willan (1757 - 1812). He obtained the degree of M.D., and was appointed vaccinator to the Jennerian Society.
Although, Dr. Willan generously offered Knowles a share in his practice, he
resolved to forsake medicine for the stage, making his first appearance probably
at Bath, and playing Hamlet at the Crow Theatre, Dublin. At Wexford he
married, in October 1809, Maria Charteris, an actress from the Edinburgh
Theatre.
In 1810 he wrote Leo, in which Edmund Kean acted with great success;
another play, Brian Boroihme, written for the Belfast Theatre in the next
year, also drew crowded houses, but his earnings were so small that he was
obliged to become assistant to his father at the Belfast Academical Institution.
In 1817, Knowles removed from Belfast to Glasgow, where, besides conducting a
flourishing school, he continued to write for the stage.
His first important success was Caius Gracchus, produced at Belfast ~fl
1815; and his Virginius, written for Edmund Kean, was first
performed in 1820 at Covent Garden. In William Tell (1825) Macready found
one of his favorite parts. His best-known play, The Hunchback, was
produced at Covent Garden in 1832. The wife was brought out at the same
theatre in 1833; and The Love Chase in 1837.
In his later years he forsook the stage for the pulpit, and as a Baptist
preacher attracted large audiences at Exeter Hall and elsewhere. He
published two polemical works: the Rock of Rome and the Idol
Demolished by its own Priests in both of which he combated the special
doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Knowles was for some years in the
receipt of an annual pension of £200, bestowed by Sir Robert Peel.
He died at Torquay on November 30, 1862.
A full list of the works of Knowles and of the various notices of him will be
found in the Life (1872), privately printed
by his son, Richard Brinsley Knowles (1820-1882), who was well known as a
journalist
Article from: Cambridge University Alumni, 1261 - 1900
Admitted at TRINITY, July 6, 1804. Doubtful if resided.
James Sheridan Knowles was the son of of James Knowles 1759 - 1840), lexicographer, and a cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. James born May 12, 1784, at Cork. School, Cork.
James wrote verse and plays from an early age. He was befriended by the elder Hazlitt, who introduced him to Lamb and Coleridge. He ran away from home after his father's second marriage (about 1800) and lived from hand to mouth. He served as an Ensign in the Wiltshire Militia and in the Tower Hamlets Militia, 1805. He Studied medicine; M.D., Aberdeen. James was the resident vaccinator to the Jennerian Society.
James abandoned medicine for the stage, first appearing at Bath and subsequently in Dublin and Belfast. He opened a school at Belfast; and moved to Glasgow in 1816. and continued to write plays. His tragedy Caius Gracchus had a great success in Belfast, 1815, subsequently at Covent Garden. Hazlitt spoke of him as the first tragic writer of his time. The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green was produced at Drury Lane in 1828; Alfred the Great or the Patriot King appeared in 1831, and The Hunchback, in which Knowles himself acted, in 1832; The Wife in 1833, the prologue and epilogue being written by Charles Lamb; The Love Chase in 1837.
James continued to act until 1843, both in his own plays and plays by others. He visited the United States in 1834. He adapted Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy, re-naming it The Bridal, and also wrote two novels, George Lovell and Fortescue, 1846 and 1847. James became, in his later years, an ardent evangelical, preaching sermons from chapel pulpits.
James married 2nd, in 1842, Miss Elphinstone, a former pupil. James Sheridan Knowles died November 30, 1862, at Torquay, Devon.
Main Source: Cambridge University Alumni, 1261 - 1900
