- GB-2014-WSA-00469
- Person
- 1732-1794
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.