George Anne Bellamy . by the Rev Brocard Sewell , O.Carm . George Anne Bellamy , once a leading figure on the London stage and in the fashionable society of her time , is today hardly known except to students of theatrical history . her life was on the whole unfortunate , and her end sad ; yet she was a fascinating personality and a fine actress , while her life-story is highly romantic . it is not easy to see why her memory should have faded , especially as she wrote a most readable autobiography which went quickly through several editions . recently , however , she has found a sympathetic biographer in Mr Cyril Hughes Hartmann , whose delightful book enchanting Bellamy ( Heinemann , 1956 ) puts her story within the reach of all and sorts out a good many of the puzzles which face the reader of her own narrative , now a very rare book , an apology for the life of George Anne Bellamy , late of Covent Garden Theatre , written by herself ( London , 1785 ) . she was a sincere catholic , notwithstanding the chronic disorder of her matrimonial affairs , for which she was not altogether responsible . for the catholic reader part of the interest and fascination of her apology lies in the glimpses that she gives us of catholic life and personalities in eighteenth-century London . Mr Hartmann , himself not a catholic , and writing for the general reader , has included in his own narrative only a selection of the episodes of catholic interest . since Miss Bellamy &apos;s apology is now so difficult a book to obtain it seems worth while to attempt a short survey of her life that will do justice to her adherence to the faith in which she was brought up . George Anne Bellamy was born at Finglas , near Dublin , on 23 April 1728 . the name which her mother wished to give her , Georgiane , was , through some blunder , entered in the baptismal register as George Anne . her mother , a Mrs Bellamy , was a quakeress from near Maidstone who had taken to the stage and entered on a liaison with James O&apos;Hara , Baron Kilmaine and second Lord Tyrawley ( 1690-1773 ) , field Marshal and diplomat , Ambassador in Portugal and later in Russia . Lord Tyrawley was considered singularly licentious even for the courts of Russia and Portugal ; he acquired three wives and fourteen children during his Portuguese embassy alone . but he was a very able man , possessed of considerable charm and some claim to polite cultivation : qualities which George Anne would seem to have inherited from him . Lord Tyrawley was not a catholic ; but for some reason he had George Anne brought up in the old religion , and she was sent to school with the Ursulines at Boulogne . her time there passed happily , and in her apology she always speaks with affection of the nuns . her mother was acquainted with many of the leading actors and actresses of the day . when George Anne was eleven or twelve years old she and her mother were invited to attend some amateur theatricals held in a barn at Mrs Woffington &apos;s Thames-side residence at Teddington . this was in 1744 , and the performance was got up in honour of Margaret Woffington &apos;s daughter Mary , aged sixteen , also just home from her convent-school on the continent . the play was Ambrose Phillips &apos; the distressed mother . Garrick himself played Orestes , with Mary ( Polly ) Woffington as Hermione and George Anne Bellamy as Andromache . though I was inferior in beauty to my fair rival , she tells us , and without the advantages of dress , yet the laurel was bestowed upon me . she was seen at once to have unusual talent , and Garrick encouraged her to take up a career on the stage . she was to have a number of misunderstandings and disagreements with Garrick , who was not always an easy man to deal with ; but she admits in her memoirs that her break with Garrick in 1753 , largely out of pique on her part , was the mistake of her life . some time in the year 1744 , after the amateur theatricals at Teddington , George Anne was taken on by John Rich , the patentee and manager of Covent Garden Theatre , and made her d&amp;eacute;but as Monimia in Otway &apos;s tragedy the orphan . the leading man , James Quin , objected to the introduction of this inexperienced child-actor in a principal part , and Rich had a good deal of trouble with him and the rest of the company as a result . her appearance on the first night was very nearly a fiasco , until , as she tells us , in the fourth act to the astonishment of the audience , the surprise of the performers , and the exultation of the manager , I felt myself suddenly inspired . I blazed out at once with meridian splendour &amp;hellip; . Mr Quin was so fascinated at this unexpected intervention that he waited behind the scenes till the conclusion of the act ; when lifting me up from the ground in a transport he exclaimed aloud , thou art a divine creature , and the true spirit is in thee . at this time George Anne had two suitors : Lord Byron , a nobleman who had little to boast of but a title and an agreeable face , and a Mr Montgomery ( who subsequently became , through a change of name , Sir George Metham ) . there seems to have been a half-hearted and unsuccessful attempt by Lord Byron to abduct her , as a result of which she became seriously unwell . when she had recovered she went down to Essex to stay with some relatives ; but the visit did not pass off too happily . on her way back to London she stopped for dinner at an inn in the town of Ingatestone : during dinner ( the landlady ) informed me that Lord Petre had a noble house and estate adjoining to that town ; adding that his lordship &apos;s family was one of the worthiest in the world , although they were Roman catholics . I could not help smiling at this reservation ; which she observing , begged my pardon ; saying , I fear , Madam , you are one . as I spoke , the starting tear glistened in my eye , at the recollection of my remissness in the duties of the religion I professed . I however smothered the upbraidings of my mind , and enquired who lived at the farmhouse which was so pleasantly situated at some distance from the town . she informed me that it belonged to a rich farmer , but they were Papishes . I then desired she would instruct me in the distinction between Roman catholics and Papishes , as she termed them . lord , miss , answered she , sure you know the difference between a hind and a Lord ? in 1745 Bellamy rather unwisely deserted Rich and Quin and accepted an offer from Tom Sheridan to play at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin . arrived in the Irish capital she went at once to call on Miss O&apos;Hara , Lord Tyrawley &apos;s unmarried sister , who welcomed her warmly and introduced her into Dublin &apos;s fashionable society . in Dublin she played Cleopatra in Dryden &apos;s all for love , against Barry &apos;s Antony and Sheridan &apos;s Ventidius , appearing also in Rowe &apos;s the fair penitent and in the provok&apos;d husband by Vanbrugh and Cibber , in which Lord and Lady Townley were played by Garrick and George Anne . she also had a great success as Portia in the merchant of Venice . while in Dublin she befriended a Mrs Gunning and her family , who were involved in the deepest distress and were about to be turned out of their house . two of the children were later the celebrated eighteenth-century beauties , the Gunning sisters , who became respectively Countess of Coventry and Duchess of Hamilton . from even before their arrival in Ireland George Anne &apos;s mother had been trying to induce her to marry an Irish linen-draper called Crump , a worthy but slightly ridiculous man with little to commend him to her except his money . her mother &apos;s insistence on this match , at the urging of Lord Tyrawley who wanted to get his daughter off his hands , seems to have been singularly stupid , and she was certainly a good deal to blame for all the unhappiness that was to follow from George Anne &apos;s refusal to consider so unattractive a suitor . although a quaker , her mother was far too flighty and worldly to make the kind of friend and adviser her brilliant daughter needed ; and Lord Tyrawley was an equally unsatisfactory parent . he certainly treated his illegitimate children kindly , and even generously . they were admitted to his own family circle as though by right , which says much for the patience and large-heartedness of Lady Tyrawley , who was a thoroughly good-natured soul . but his care for them was fitful and spasmodic , largely because of his frequent absences abroad ; and he was ill-equipped to give them anything in the way of moral or religious guidance . to the misfortune of her birth and her lack of a proper home must be attributed in large part the misfortunes of George Anne &apos;s life . back in London George Anne became the principal tragic actress in Quin &apos;s company , appearing as Belvidera in Otway &apos;s Venice preserv&apos;d , Statira in Lee &apos;s the rival Queens , and other parts . in comedy she was less successful : Mrs Ward had given way to her in tragedy , but Peg Woffington was not to be supplanted as principal interpreter of comedy . still , George Anne made creditable appearances as Harriet in Etherege &apos;s the man of mode : or Sir Fopling Flutter , Lady Froth in Congreve &apos;s the double-dealer , and as Lady Fanciful in Vanbrugh &apos;s the provok&apos;d wife . in 1749 George Metham was renewing his attentions to Miss Bellamy . in the Lent of that year they were both attending the Wednesday and Friday evening devotions at the Bavarian embassy chapel , one of the few places of worship available to the catholics of London since diplomatic privilege secured for it immunity from the penal laws then in force . originally attached to the Portuguese embassy the chapel , adjacent to Golden Square , is said to have been built soon after the restoration of 1660 . subsequently rebuilt and enlarged at different periods it is now the Church of our Lady of the assumption and St Gregory , Warwick Street , W.1 . when the Portuguese Ambassador removed to South Street , Mayfair , in 1736 , the Bavarian embassy took over the house and chapel in Golden Square . Mrs Bellamy ( most actresses in the eighteenth century , once over a certain age , were usually known as Mrs whether married or not ) became closely acquainted with the Bavarian Ambassador , Count Franz von Haslang , a nobleman of fine character who was to prove one of her most faithful friends in all the distresses of her life . in 1780 the chapel was wrecked in the Gordon riots . it is usually assumed that the chapel was totally destroyed , but Bellamy &apos;s evidence seems to show that this was not so . it appears more likely that the furniture and appointments were destroyed and the fabric badly damaged , but that the chapel was still able to be used for occasional services , such as that held for the Count &apos;s funeral in 1783 , until it was rebuilt about the year 1787 . if this is so , and there seems to be no real reason for doubting it , then surely Warwick Street church can claim the longest continuity of worship of any catholic church in England , apart from certain chapels belonging to noble houses or to religious communities ? such , at any rate , is Mr Hartmann &apos;s opinion . among the clergy at Warwick Street when Mrs Bellamy knew it was the Reverend John Darcy , who was there from 1748 to 1758 and who appears to have been her confessor and spiritual director , as well as her trusted friend . she mentions also the well-known Dr James Archer , who had begun life as potboy at the ship tavern , near the Sardinian chapel in Lincoln &apos;s Inn Fields , and whose sermons went through several editions and were appreciated by catholics and protestants alike . she also knew well the celebrated Franciscan Arthur O&apos;Leary , founder of the mission of St Patrick &apos;s , Soho Square . to return to the year 1749 : before long George Anne Bellamy considered herself as virtually engaged to George Metham ; but unfortunately Lord Tyrawley intervened and expressed great displeasure at her rejection of Mr Crump , whom he was still insistent on her marrying . 