Mrs W. H. Foley

Catherine Huggins, known in history as Mrs W.H. Foley (2January 18214 March1887) was a British actress, singer, director and manager.

Life Early life Foley was born into a theatrical family in England in 1821 as the second of ten children to mother, Frances Pierce and father, Benjamin Edwin Huggins. She was baptised Catherine Huggins in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, in early 1821. Her parents and both sets of grandparents were actors, and this theatrical heritage asserted itself in Catherine's adult life.

Early career In San Francisco Foley met William Henry Foley, a charismatic clown, circus proprietor and theatrical entrepreneur, whom she married in June 1851, becoming Mrs W.H. Foley. Her first reported stage appearance took place in Sacramento on 23 June 1851, as Mrs W.H. Foley; she performed in a song-and-dance troupe sharing the bill with one of her husband's more elaborate imported showpieces, A Great American Panorama of New York City. Vernon Webster was a stage name adopted in New Zealand by 28-year-old Lowten Lowten, an experienced amateur actor originally from Liverpool.

A play called Vagabonds was written by Lorrae Parry in 2003 about the imagined adventures in New Zealand of Mrs Foley, Charlotte Badger and Mrs Swan a suffragette.

Later career In late 1868 there is a record of Mrs W.H. Foley (now going by 'L. K. Foley' or 'Lucy') and Vernon Webster (now Lowten Lowten) advertising a benefit performance in Peru to enable them to return to their ‘own country’. It seems they were in financial strife following the deaths of several members of their company. In June 1873, the couple resurfaced in Liverpool where they were married on 11 May 1882 as Mr & Mrs Lowten Lowten.

In late December 1883, the couple returned to New Zealand. From 29 February ‘Mr and Mrs Lowten Lowten’ began staging some ‘drawing room entertainments’ at the Napier Theatre Royal and in nearby towns. On 21 April 1884 a nearly identical programme was given in Wanganui, billed as by ‘Mrs W.H. Foley and Vernon Webster’. The performance in Wanganui was the last given by the couple, and the names of Mrs W.H. Foley and Vernon Webster disappeared from public view.

Lucy Kate Lowten (AKA: Catherine Huggins and Mrs W.H. Foley) died at Napier, New Zealand on 4 March 1887 and was buried in the Napier cemetery. Her death certificate noted that she had no surviving children but this may not be correct. Her son Charles Caparn and a daughter, Wilhelmina Foley (who was born in the 1850s), could still have been alive.