Note 126 — Chapter XII

Foote was a native of Truro, in Cornwall, and in early life the school-fellow and companion of the late Dr. Haweis. His father was a justice of the peace, and his mother the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere, who was murdered by his brother, Captain Goodere, in 1741. He had a most amazing talent for imitating, even to the very voice, those he intended to take off. For this species of amusement he had several actions brought against him, and was cast in heavy damages. One of his biographers tells us, that “very pressing embarrassments in his affairs compelled him to bring out his comedy of The Minor, in 1760, to ridicule Methodism, which, though successful, gave great offence, and was at last suppressed.” His talent for ridicule ultimately proved his destruction. In 1776 he drew a character of the celebrated Duchess of Kingston, then much talked of, who had influence enough to hinder his play from being represented. He then threatened to publish, and endeavoured to extort a considerable sum of money from the Duchess. The affair ripened at length into a legal charge, and the shock he received from this disgraceful exposure is believed to have had a fatal effect upon him. After a life of great vicissitude and irregularity, he died at Dover, in 1777.