Biography

Don was born on 4 May 1825. His father, Sir Alexander Don, sixth baronet of Newtondon, Berwickshire, "the model of a cavalier in all courteous and elegant accomplishments", was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

, and one of the most constant attendants at his social dinner parties. He sat for Roxburghshire 1814–18, 1818–20, and from 1820 until his decease, 11 April 1826, aged 47. His mother, Grace Jane Wallace

Grace Jane Wallace

-Life:She was the eldest daughter of John Stein of Edinburgh. She became, on 19 August 1824, the second wife of Sir Alexander Don, sixth baronet of Newton Don, and the intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott...

, eldest daughter of John Stein of Edinburgh, married as her second husband Sir James Maxwell Wallace, knight, of Ainderby Hall, near Northallerton

Northallerton

Northallerton is an affluent market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It has a population of 15,741 according to the 2001 census...

.

William Henry Don, the only son, when less than a year old, succeeded his father as seventh baronet, and received his education at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 between 1838 and 1841. On 28–30 Aug. 1839 he took part in the Eglinton Tournament in the character of a page to Lady Montgomerie.

He entered the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 as a cornet in the 5th Dragoon Guards

5th Dragoon Guards

The 5th Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in 1922....

 3 June 1842, was an extra aide-de-camp to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 1844, lieutenant in the 5th dragoon guards, 1845, and retired from the army 28 November 1845 deep in debt. The fine estate called Newtondon, left him by his father, had to be sold, and produced £85,000, which went to his creditors.

He was then compelled to turn to account the experience which he had acquired as an amateur actor, and after a short starring engagement in the north of England, he went to America, where he made his first public appearance as John Duck in the ‘Jacobite’ at the Broadway Theatre, New York, on 27 Oct. 1850. Nathaniel Parker Willis

Nathaniel Parker Willis

Nathaniel Parker Willis , also known as N. P. Willis, was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former...

, who shortly afterwards saw him in the character of Sir Charles Coldstream in the comedy of Used Up, gives a very favourable opinion of his acting in the character of a gentleman . He remained in America for nearly five years, playing with success in New York, Philadelphia, and other large towns, and on his return to England found that after all his affairs had been wound up he was still in debt about £7,000. To endeavour to pay off this sum he continued the profession of a comedian. He commenced in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and after a provincial tour came to the Haymarket Theatre, London, where in 1857 he acted in a piece called ‘Whitebait at Greenwich.’

In 1861 he went to Australia. At this period he had taken to playing female characters in burlesques, and he appeared at the Royal Theatre, Melbourne, in ‘Valentine and Orson’ and in a travestie of the ‘Colleen Bawn’ called ‘Eily O'Connor.’ In February 1862 he visited Hobart Town, Tasmania, with a company of his own, where he fell ill. On 15 March 1862, he played Queen Elizabeth in the burlesque of ‘Kenilworth,’ and four days later he died from aneurysm

Aneurysm

An aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...

 of the aorta

Aorta

The aorta is the largest artery in the body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it branches off into two smaller arteries...

 at Webb's Hotel, Hobart Town. He possessed a fine sense of humour, a quick perception of the ludicrous side of life and character, a remarkable talent for mimicry, a strong nerve, a ready wit, and great self-possession.

There is a pub on Elizabeth Street in Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

 named after him, although it now trades as 'Joker's Bar'.

Family

He married, first, June 1847, Antonia, daughter of M. Lebrun of Hamburg; secondly, 17 Oct. 1857, at Marylebone, Emily Eliza, eldest daughter of John Saunders of the Adelphi Theatre, London. Miss Saunders had been well known as a lively actress in comedy and farce at the Adelphi, Haymarket, Surrey, and other theatres, for some years before her marriage to Don. Returning to England after her husband's death, she resumed her professional career, but with no very profitable result, though she had been very popular in the Australian colonies and in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. In 1867 she went to the United States, where she made her appearance on 18 Feb. at the New York Theatre in Peggy Green and the burlesque of ‘Kenilworth,’ and on the close of the season returned to her native country. She was for a short period lessee of the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, and assisted at the opening of the Gaiety Theatre, Edinburgh (Era, 26 Sept. 1875, p. 11). Latterly she was in reduced circumstances and was obliged to appear as a vocalist in music halls. She died at Edinburgh 20 Sept. 1875.