Lavinia Powlett, Duchess of Bolton (1708 – 24 January 1760), known by her stagename as Lavinia Fenton, was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actress.

She was probably the daughter of a naval lieutenant named Beswick, but she bore the name of her mother's husband. She was thought to have been born in Charring Cross, and had been a child prostitute before becoming an actress. Her first appearance was as Monimia in Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...

's The Orphan

The Orphan

This article is about the play. For the 2009 horror film, see Orphan .The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage is a domestic tragedy, written by Thomas Otway in 1680. It was first produced at the Dorset Garden Theatre, and starred Mrs. Barry as Monimia, Thomas Betterton as Castalio and Mr. Jo. Williams...

, in 1726 at the Haymarket Theatre

Haymarket Theatre

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

. She then joined the company of players at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...

, where her success and beauty made her the toast of the beaux. It was in John Gay

John Gay

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...

's Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...

, as Polly Peachum, that Miss Fenton made her greatest success. Her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her, and she was the most talked-of person in London. Hogarth

Hogarth

-People:* Burne Hogarth, American cartoonist, illustrator, educator and author* David George Hogarth, English archaeologist* Donald Hogarth, Canadian politician and mining financier* Paul Hogarth, English painter and illustrator...

's picture shows her in one of the scenes, with the Duke of Bolton in a box.

After appearing in several comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of the Beggar's Opera in 1728, she ran away with her lover Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton

Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton

Lieutenant-General Charles Powlett , 3rd Duke of Bolton KG PC was a British nobleman and politician....

, a man much older than herself, who, after the death of his wife in 1751, married her at Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

. They already had three sons: Charles

Charles Powlett

The Reverend Charles Powlett was a noted patron of English cricket who has been described as the mainstay, if not the actual founder, of the Hambledon Club...

, Percy, and Horatio Armand, who entered the church, the navy, and the army respectively. The duchess survived her husband and died in 1760 at Westcombe

Westcombe Park

This article is about the London district. See Westcombe Park rugby club for details of the rugby club - now based in Orpington.Westcombe Park is a largely residential area in Blackheath in the London Borough of Greenwich, south-east London, England....

 House in Greenwich

Greenwich

Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

, being buried in St Alfege's Church, Greenwich

St Alfege's Church, Greenwich

St Alfege Church is a Church of England place of worship in the town centre of Greenwich in the eponymous London Borough.-History:The church is dedicated to, and reputedly marks the place where Alfege , Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed by Viking raiders on 19 April 1012.The second church built...

 on 3 February 1760.

External links

• Lavinia Fenton, Duchess of Bolton circa 1740–50 by William Hogarth
  William Hogarth
  William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...