Event Comment: A proclamation forbidding the keeping of Bartholomew Fair (and Sturbridge Fair in Salisbury) is in the Chetham Library, Manchester. A similar notice is in The Newes, 17 August 1665. No doubt, Southwark Fair fell under a similar closing order

Event Comment: By Command of his Royal Highness. [The Prince, accompanied by the Duke of Manchester, Lord Charles Cavendish, and Colonel Schutz, present.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Lowe, from Openshaw near Manchester in Lancashire, who lately kept the Gray's Inn Coffeehouse, near Gray's-Inn-Gate, in Holbourn, and is now in great Distress. At the Desire of several Worthy Gentlemen

Event Comment: Benefit for Grimaldi & Hurst. Public Advertiser, 21 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Grimaldi, Little Piazza, Covent Garden. [Younger was from the Manchester theatre.] Receipts: #217 0s. 6d. (46.14.0; 17.17.6; 0.0.0; tickets: 152.9.0) (charge: #65 16s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [This was Mrs Hitchcock's 1st appearance in London. Miss Farren was from the Manchester theatre. Miss Twist is identified in playbill of 14 July.] Because of Foote's acting scarcely anything but his own plays "a relaxation of discipline has been fallen into at the Haymarket... The audience last night, however, were not less surprized than pleased at the very regular manner in which the Comedy and the Burletta were exhibited. All the business of the stage perfect, all the little parts smoothly given, and the whole rather superior than inferior to a performance at either of the Winter Theatres" (Morning Chronicle, 10 June)

Event Comment: [Mrs Ward was from the Manchester theatre.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a perspective Representation of the Grand Camp at Cox-Heathv [see 15 Oct. 1778. This was included in all subsequent performances.]. Receipts: #225 11s. (179.2.0; 44.19.6; 1.9.6)

Event Comment: [Miss Frodsham was from the Manchester theatre.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Lady Randolph was at Manchester, 5 Feb. 1777.] "The Siddons, younger and more rich in natural Gifts, certainly offers much to the Mind, and yet much more to the Eye. The Crawford, by some means or other, offers more to the Heart" (Public Advertiser, 24 Dec). Receipts: #303 8s. 6d. (156/2/0; 10/13/0; 0/13/6; tickets: 136/0/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: [Lee Lewes's 1st recorded appearance as Falstaff was at Manchester, 19 Dec. 1777. Miss Farren's 1st appearance as Mrs Ford was at the HAY, 24 Aug. 1781.] Receipts: #277 2s. (273/15; 3/2; ticket not come in: 0/5)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [on playbill of 23 Apr.]. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Sigismunda was at Manchester, 10 Jan. 1778.] Public Advertiser, 20 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 7, Leicester-fields. Receipts: #324 1s. (146/2/0; 8/1/6; 0/2/6; tickets: 169/15/0)(charge: #106 10s. 1d.)

Event Comment: [Kemble had 1st acted Othello, and Mrs Siddons Desdemona, at Manchester, 29 Jan. 1777.] Receipts: #259 14s. (243/8; 15/18; 0/8)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time in London; F 2, by John Philip Kemble, 1st acted at Manchester, 25 Mar. 1778, as The Female Officer. MS: Larpent 723; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 20 Feb. Prologue by James Cobb (European Magazine, Feb. 1786, p. 129)]. Receipts: #222 8s. 6d. (192/0/0; 29/6/0; 0/7/6; tickets not come in: 0/15/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Kemble. Tickets delivered for The Careless Husband will be taken. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion, Ladies are desired to send their Servants at half past Four o'Clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Lady Restless was at Manchester, 17 Feb. 1777.] Public Advertiser, 12 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Kemble, No. 16, Charles-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #293 12s. 6d. (148.16.0; 15.3.0; 0.7.6; tickets: 129.10.0) (charge: #105 11s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [Banks was from the Manchester theatre.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a Representation of the Repulse of the Spaniards before the Rock of Gibraltarv [on 13 Sept. 1782]. Scenes designed by Greenwood; Overture by Baumgarten. Receipts: #173 16s. (152.10; 20.13; 0.13)

Event Comment: Benefit for Pacchierotti. Tickets to be had of Pacchierotti, No. 17, Duke-street, Manchester-square. A new Grand Serious Opera (1st time [i.e. in 2 acts; originally performed in 3 acts at Milan, 1778, and at king's, 22 Jan. 1780]); the music by Bertoni. [World announces the ballets for this night as La Fille Mal Gardee and Le Siege de Cythere.

Event Comment: [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Mrs Oakly was at Manchester, 21 Mar. 1777.] Receipts: #241 14s. 6d. (199.1.6; 39.17.0; 2.16.0)

Event Comment: [This was Wilson's last appearance in London; subsequently he acted at Edinburgh, Manchester, &c.] Receipts: #250 10s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Translated from Voltaire. Not acted these 20 years [acted l6 Nov. 1779]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 18 years [not acted since 19 Apr. 1774]. Morning Chronicle, 9 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Palmyra was at Manchester, 1 Apr. 1778. Adress by Samuel Rogers (European Magazine, May 1795, p. 344). Epilogue by David Garrick.] Receipts: #569 8s. 6d. (293.14.6; 59.10.6; 8.0.0; tickets:208.3.6) (charge:#204 1s.)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Wilson, widow of Richard Wilson, lately of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden and Haymarket [whose 1st appearance on the stage was at Manchester, 26 Feb. 1796]. Tickets to be had of Mrs Wilson, No. 239, Piccadilly, near the Haymarket

Event Comment: Benefit for Munden [who had 1st sung A Dish of all Sorts at the Manchester theatre in 1785]. 1st piece : Never acted here. Morning Herald, 9 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Munden, No. 16, Clement's Inn

Event Comment: [Cory was from the Manchester theatre.] Receipts: #281 5s. (169.19.6; 107.18.6; 3.7.0)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)