Francis Gentleman (1728-1784)

Francis Gentleman was an Irish actor, poet, playwright and critic. His memoir records details of his strolling in the North including the period that he helped Thomas Bates to establish the Durham theatre company in about 1760.

No portrait of Gentleman survives, but George Parker met him at a gathering in a public house in Russell Street, Covent Garden, in 1781 and left a picturesque description. Gentleman was “of an extraordinary appearance, talking to a large congregation of ALL SORTS on the equity, justice, and policy of the American war.” His “garb . . . was his whim” Gentleman declared to Parker, and his “circumstances were by no means so narrow” as his dress indicated.

He wore a very ragged surtout coat, without a waistcoat: his hat, wig &c. were all of a piece. In his left hand he held a pot of porter, and with his right enforced by his action the weight of his argument. He was a perfect master of his subject, and of the language. He exemplified his knowledge of the English Constitution, by running thro’ the annals of Great Britain, from its earliest period to the year 1777, with the greatest accuracy and precision, never hesitating one moment. His principles were perfectly Whig, and he adduced numerous cases … to prove the Crown of England was in the gift of the people. . . . [He] astonished all . . . by the greatness of his capacity, and the force of his abilities. . . . On my talking to him indifferently about the weather &c. he turned his back, and pulling out a bologna sausage and a crust of bread, eat his dinner, without noticing any one, observing the remainder of the afternoon with the most rigid rules of taciturnity, though he had his full-pot five times replenished with porter.