Unità documentaria II/vii/04 - Posthumous Letters from Various celebrated men Addressed to Francis Colman and George Colman The Elder With Annotations by G. Colman The Younger

COLMAN, GEORGE, son of Francis Colman, British Resident at Court of Tuscany, and Mary, dau. of John Gumley MP, Isleworth, Middlesex, Commissioner-Gen. of Musters, and sister-in-law of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (qv); bapt. 18 Apr 1732; adm. Oct 1741; KS 1746; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1751, matr. 5 Jun 1751, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1751 - void 25 Jun 1764; BA 1755; MA 1758; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 14 Jan 1752, called to bar 24 Jan 1757; Oxford circuit; joint editor with Bonnell Thornton (qv) of The Connoisseur, 1754-6; his first play, Polly Honeycombe, was produced at Drury Lane 5 Dec 1760; his Jealous Wife, the most popular comedy of its day, appeared in the following year, and The Clandestine Marriage, written in collaboration with his friend David Garrick, in 1766; manager, Covent Garden Theatre 1767-74, Haymarket Theatre 1777-89; member, Society of Dilettanti, 1778; edited The Dramatic Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, 1778; translated The Comedies of Terence, 1765, and Horace’s Art of Poetry, 1783; m. Sarah Ford, actress; d. 14 Aug 1794. DNB.

COLMAN, GEORGE, only son of George Colman (adm. 1741, qv); b. 21 Oct 1762; adm. 30 Jun 1772; saved from drowning, whilst bathing in the Thames opposite Dicky Roberts’s boat house, by his schoolfellow George Cranstoun (qv); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 28 Jan 1780; King’s Coll. Aberdeen, 1781-3; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 9 Aug 1784; Manager, Haymarket Theatre, 1789-1813; Lieut., Yeomen of the Guard, 13 May 1820- Sep 1831 (check); Examiner of Plays, Lord Chamberlain’s Office, from 19 Jan 1824; author, Broad Grins, 1802, Random Records, 1830, and of the plays The Iron Chest, 1796, The Heir at Law, 1797, and John Bull, 1803; his Random Records contains interesting reminiscences of his schooldays and schoolfellows; m. at Gretna Green 3 Oct 1784 (and at Chelsea Parish Church 10 Nov 1788) Catherine Morris, actress, St. Luke’s, Chelsea; d. 17 Oct 1836. DNB.