Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris (died 1820) was an English theatre manager, who became proprietor of Covent Garden Theatre.

Life His background was in business. In the autumn of 1767, with George Colman the elder, John Rutherford, and William Powell, Harris purchased from John Beard the patent of Covent Garden Theatre. The theatre opened on 14 September 1767, with The Rehearsal, in which Powell spoke a prologue by William Whitehead.

Colman took on a management role, but a serious quarrel broke out between Harris and Colman during the first season, driven by the ambitions of Jane Lessingham, an actress with whom Harris lived. Colman, with whom Powell sided, barricaded the theatre, and Harris, supported by Rutherford, broke it forcibly open. Legal proceedings and a pamphlet war followed. On 23 July 1770, a legal decision of the commissioners of the Great Seal reinstated Colman as acting manager, subject to the advice and inspection, but not the control, of his fellows. Powell, meanwhile, had died 3 July 1769. Henry later married Elizabeth Logan, Mrs Carey, mistress of the Duke of York in Bath on 31 December 1832. A daughter of Harris died in 1802, aged 15, and a son, George, lived to be a captain in the Royal Navy. A sister of Harris married into the family of Longmans, the publishers.