Charlotte Melmoth

Mrs Charlotte Melmoth (c. 1749 – 1823) was an 18th-century English actress, the estranged spouse of British actor/writer Samuel Jackson Pratt ("Courtney Melmoth"), and known as "The Grande Dame of Tragedy on the Early American Stage". After a moderately successful stage career in Great Britain and Ireland, she emigrated to the United States of America in 1793 and became one of the best-known actresses of the late 18th/early 19th century. Her birth name is uncertain. She first came to the attention of the British public in the late 18th century, as "Mrs Courtney Melmoth" part of an acting duo with her common-law husband, clergyman-turned actor Samuel Jackson Pratt. It is not known whether she adopted her husband's stage-surname "Melmoth" or, as has been speculated, "Melmoth" was her real surname and Pratt adopted it as his own stage name.

Most biographers give her year of birth as 1749, the same as Pratt's. However this would put her in her twenties in the early 1770s, when she first met Pratt, in contradiction of another biographer's claim that she was still at school when this meeting occurred. According to A History of The City of Brooklyn, Melmoth "had been duped into a sham marriage, while at boarding school, by a Mr. Pratt (known in the literary and theatrical circles of that day as Courtney Melmoth), and with him went upon the stage, playing in several companies both in England and Ireland." The couple were present in January 1778 when Franklin gave a copy of his portrait to a certain Mrs Izard, but neglected to give a similar copy to Melmoth. The incident inspired Melmoth to write a poem, "Impromptu, To Doctor Franklin For the Author who was present when he gave his Portrait to a Lady", which Pratt sent to Franklin. Franklin replied, apologising for not realising that Melmoth also wanted a copy of the portrait.

The couple were by now experiencing serious financial problems — Pratt had already borrowed money from a friend, Mrs Montagu, and attempted to borrow money from Samuel Johnson He then asked for a further loan four days later and, on 3 March begged Franklin for "a small allowance by week or month, in order to assist my slender Circumstances". A further request for money was made on 12 May, shortly before the "Melmoths" returned to England, to which Franklin replied that he found the requests for money "a greater inconvenience to myself than you perhaps imagined", but agreeing to the further loan, relying "on your Honour and Punctuality for the speedy Repayment". On 22 June 1778 Pratt wrote to Franklin from London regretting that he and Melmoth were unable to repay the money, whereupon the friendship with Franklin appears to have abruptly ended. By 1781 Pratt and Melmoth had separated, and Melmoth, retaining her professional surname, continued her acting career in Ireland.

In November 1776 she made her debut at Drury Lane This would be her last appearance in London; the following year she and her husband were in Paris,

According to The Thespian Dictionary, Melmoth converted to Roman Catholicism in 1786, shortly prior to her benefit performance in Dublin; the Dictionary suggests her motives were purely mercenary – increased ticket sales in a Catholic city – but most biographers believe her conversion to be sincere.

In July 1789 Melmoth announced her retirement from the theatre to open a school teaching filigree work to ladies,

She died, aged 74, on 28 September 1823 and was buried in the Catholic graveyard surrounding the original St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mott and Prince streets in Manhattan.