Author: Atkinson, Joseph
Biography:
ATKINSON, Joseph (c. 1743-1818: DIB)
He was born at Dublin but no information about his parents has been located. He studied at Trinity College Dublin before entering the army where he attained the rank of captain. On 13 Mar. 1775 at Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, he married Anna Marie Honeyborne (b 1755); they had at least one child, b 1779. Atkinson was best known as a dramatist and his plays were derivative but popular. A comedy, Mutual Deception, was produced in Dublin in 1785 and adapted by George Colman the younger (q.v.) as Tit for Tat for the Haymarket theatre. Atkinson also wrote an opera, Match for a Widow, with music by Charles Dibdin (q.v.) and Love in a Blaze, a musical play, which was performed at Dublin’s Crow Street theatre. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a friend of Thomas Moore (q.v.). He died in England and was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles at Cheadle, Staffordshire, on 10 July 1818; his epitaph (“Lines on the Death of Joseph Atkinson”) was written by Moore. There is a memorial to him in Monkstown church, Ireland. (DIB 5 Jan. 2021; ODNB 5 Jan. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 5 Jan. 2021) SR