Did your ancestors become famous and have a piece written about them in a Who’s Who or a dictionary of biography? Many people did as the subjects for these profiles often climbed up from humble beginnings. That being the case, finding their entry in one of the books that provide the basis of TheGenealogist’s Occupational Records can immediately fill in gaps with tantalising facts about the person. Facts which may lead you to all sorts of other records and avenues for investigation. Even if we can’t find an actual past family member we may consult this type of record to find out more about the celebrities of the day that our ancestors may have followed in the press or gone to see at a show.

As an example, there is the child actor Marie Effie Wilton, an actress whose life was spent on the stage, married a man who would become a Knight of the Theatre and she would be a force to reckon with as the manager of one of the West End’s famous theatres. Searching for her in the latest release of records that includes various biographical resources from architects and engineers, to publishers and actors who’s whos, we discover that she gets an entry in more than one of these useful resources.

Lady Marie Effie Bancroft, neé Wilton, (1839–1921) appeared onstage as Miss Marie Wilton until after her marriage in December 1867 to Squire Bancroft, when she would often appear in the newspapers as Mrs Bancroft. Even then it was common to see the inclusion of ‘Miss Marie Wilton’ in brackets after her married name to aid the public of the time in recognizing that she was one and the same person. When her husband received a knighthood she then became Lady Bancroft and both she and Sir Squire Bancroft were important characters in the development of the Victorian era theatre through their acting as well as their presentation of innovative plays at the London theatres that they managed.

She ‘entered the dramatic profession as a child’

The first resource that we can use to discover more about this talented woman is The Dramatic List from 1879 and which is part of the latest batch of new Occupational Records to be added by TheGenealogist. This entry reveals that she was born in Doncaster and ‘entered the dramatic profession as a child’. It recounts that after various children’s parts in provincial theatres principally at Norwich, Bristol and Bath, she made her first appearance in London, on September 15, 1856, at the Lyceum Theatre, as the boy Henri, in ‘ Belphegor’. The same evening she played Perdita, in a burlesque by William Brough. We can then follow her early career as it lists her parts in other dramatic productions. We are told that her metropolitan reputation having been established, she then in 1865, in conjunction with Mr. H. J. Byron, entered upon the management of the little theatre in Tottenham Street, Tottenham Court Road. This playhouse would then become known as the ‘Prince of Wales’s Theatre’ but has since been demolished and should not be confused with the theatre of a similar name today. Later it would be with her husband that she ran first the Prince of Wales’s Theatre and later the Haymarket Theatre. When she and Henry Byron (second cousin to the poet Lord Byron) first took on the enterprise Byron wrote a number of plays for their theatre; it was her capital, however, that made it possible to take on the venture into management. They had secured the services of Squire Bancroft as their leading actor, and she would marry him two years later in 1867 as a search of TheGenealogist’s Civil Marriage Records reveals.

There is an atmospheric photograph of our subject striking a theatrical pose with a somewhat quizzical look on her face included in this Who’s Who. She glances “off stage right” and is stern in appearance giving us an impression of a strong woman who knows her mind. This image contrasts with the more playful image of her captured in the painting by Thomas Jones Barker, also in the 1870s, where she was painted with an amused grin on her face.

Using this information we can then search TheGenealogist using the surname Wilton and the key words of “Prince of Wales’s” and we can then find a number of results returned in the Newspaper and Magazines record collection. These include those from The Times in June 1876 advertising the shows that were being performed at the theatre where she was noted as the managing lessee.

Sir Squire and the migration to the Haymarket

One of the other records newly released is The Green Room Book and Who’s Who on the Stage 1907. In this resource she is listed as Lady Bancroft and her husband, Sir Squire, is afforded a splendid black and white photo depicting him with a fine moustache and wearing a monocle in his left eye. The entry in this book-record tells us that she was the daughter of Robert Pleydell Wilton, a provincial actor. We learn that she was able to move on from Burlesque to become the finest comedy actress in London and with her husband, ‘a man of profound judgement’, had a long list of successes at the Prince of Wales’s. They ‘migrated’, as the entry said, to the Haymarket in 1880 and retired from management in 1885 and seldom acted after 1897.

This book, published in 1907, gives her address as 18 Berkeley Square in London. Turning to the closest census to this one, Sir Squire and Lady Bancroft are actually recorded at Underlea, Sandgate in Folkestone, Kent with a house containing 17 rooms. However by looking at the image of the actual census return we can see, under the signature in the bottom right hand corner, that they have added ‘and 18 Berkeley Square, London’.

With the details that can be gleaned from the entries recorded in the biographical resources that make up TheGenealogist’s Occupational Records, we are able to then use this information to fill out a persons’ life story and go looking in other records for more details. In the case of Lady Bancroft, who started out as a child actress treading the boards in the provinces being the daughter of a provincial actor, we were able to learn of her career, some of her performances and read about her move into management of top London Theatres. We learn of her marriage to a leading man, a man of profound judgement, and their retirement to Kent while keeping a townhouse in Berkeley Square.