Author: Dance, Charles
Biography:
DANCE, Charles (1794-1863: ODNB)
The youngest son of William Dance, a musician, and his wife Jane Beeston, he was born on 19 Dec. 1794 in Marylebone, London. His parents had married in St. Anne’s, Soho, on 6 Dec. 1780. Charles Dance was baptised at St. Mary’s, Marylebone, on 18 Jan. 1795. Nothing is known about his early life but newspaper notices show that he was a clerk in the Office of Insolvent Debtors as early as 1822; he progressed through the ranks to become chief clerk in 1858 and retired on a yearly pension of £800 in 1861. He made his name in writing for the theatre in collaboration with James Robinson Planché (q.v.). Their first work together was “Manoeuvering, a Farce in One Act”; it survives in manuscript in the BL and was produced at the Haymarket theatre in 1829. From 1830 to 1839 Dance and Planché specialised in writing short burlesque plays for the Olympic theatre, then under the management of Madame Vestris. With plays such as The Bengal Tiger (1837) and Naval Engagements (1838), Dance also successfully developed an independent career with his works produced at the Olympic. He also composed popular songs and in the 1840s he wrote for Vestris and Charles Mathews at the Lyceum theatre. His last play was Marriage a Lottery (1858). Although the ODNB provides no names or dates, it states that Dance was twice married. Records have been found for just one marriage, on 6 July 1840 in Guisborough, Yorkshire, to a widow Jane (Knyvett) Ingilby. Her first husband, Ralph Mitford Preston Ingilby, was a military officer stationed in Jamaica where he died in 1831; they had two sons and two daughters. The 1841 Census shows Dance living with Jane, her two daughters, a governess, and some pupils at Hereford House in Kensington; possibly Jane was operating a girls’ school. By the time of Jane’s death in Nov. 1854 they had moved to 64 Mornington Road, Regent’s Park. Dance remained at that address until after the 1861 Census was recorded but then he moved to Lowestoft, Suffolk, for his health. He died at Lowestoft on 5 Jan. 1863, leaving effects of under £4000; Mary Lipscomb Ingilby, one of Jane’s daughters, was his executor. (ODNB 17 June 2024; ancestry.co.uk18 June 2024; findmypast.co.uk 18 June 2024; The Englishman 3 Feb. 1822)