Author: Andrews, Miles Peter
Biography:
ANDREWS, Miles Peter (1742-1814: ODNB)
The son of William John Andrews, a drysalter, and his wife Kerthrine (sic), he was baptised on 5 Oct. 1742 at St. Antholin’s in the City of London. Andrews was educated in Utrecht. Although he was intended by his father for a life of business, he preferred high society and the theatre; notoriously he had an affair with Ann Cargill, an actress, and was a friend of the dissolute Thomas, Lord Lyttelton, from whom he inherited £2000 in 1779. On the death of one of his brothers, he and a cousin inherited a profitable gunpowder mill in Kent which they worked to expand. In 1796 he succeeded George Fulke Lyttelton as MP for Bewdley, Worcestershire, and held the seat until his death. He wrote many comic plays which were moderately successful in production at Covent Garden, Drury Lane, and the Haymarket although R. B. Sheridan (q.v.) captured the popular view when he stated that the head and tail of his works were always better than the body. He also published verse in Poetry of the World using the pseudonym Arley. He never married and died suddenly at home in Cleveland Row, London, on 18 July 1814, leaving a large estate. He was buried in St. James’s churchyard, Piccadilly, on 26 July. (ODNB 26 Sept. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 26 Sept 2022)