Note 12 — 1809.

The name of Mrs. Clarke's father was Thompson, and he, it appears, was a master printer of some respectability, residing in Bowl and Pin Alley, near White's Alley, Chancery Lane, where Miss Thompson was ushered into the world, as Sterne has it, with 'squalls of disapprobation at the journey she was compelled to perform.'

Upon the death of Mr. Thompson, his widow married a Mr. Farquhar, who was engaged as a compositor in the printing house of Mr. Hughes. Miss Thompson was occasionally employed in reading copy to the person engaged as corrector of the press, in which situation she soon attracted the notice of the son of the overseer, who, recognising her abilities, had her placed at a boarding school at Ham, where the young lady, whose 'capacity for elegant improvements' was, if we trust her biographers, of an advanced order, soon acquired ornamental accomplishments; and, from the natural quickness of her parts, she returned, after an absence of two years, so completely altered in her ideas that she thought proper to despise and treat with coldness the attentions of Mr. Day, the well-meaning young gentleman who had been at the charge of finishing her education, it is said, with the view to a future union with this sprightly and promising female prodigy.

Her biographers have hinted at least one flirtation, possibly of a harmless description, before she arrived at the age of seventeen, when she threw in her future with Mr. Joseph Clarke, the hopeful son of a wealthy builder and contractor in Snow Hill. After a union of many years, during which she had experienced various vicissitudes, we find that the misconduct of her husband, who seems, on the whole—from the accounts of some of his contemporaries—to have done his best to deserve the treatment he received, although there are two sides to this story, determined the fascinating Mary Ann to trust to her own resources for support.

During her tenure of the 'neutral territory,' the name of more than one gentleman of gallant reputation and of rank was coupled with her own; but passing over the list of her admirers, we must mention a certain Mr. Dowler (whose name occurred frequently during the investigation), who seems to have had more faithful regard for the lady than her other doubtful lights of love. Mrs. Clarke further became ambitious of shining on a larger scale, and she had the honour of appearing on the boards of the Haymarket Theatre in the character of Portia. Great praise was awarded her performance; her natural abilities, with a certain vivacity, added to a well modulated voice and graceful action, were sufficient to qualify her for a successful actress; but she felt that her proper stage was the world, and she merely secured her introduction to the histrionic profession as an experiment towards promoting the foundation of her future fortunes, and her object in this regard seems to have been secured and her plans were successfully realised.