Author: Davies, Blanche
Biography:
DAVIES, Blanche (fl 1832)
Octavia; or The Bride of St. Agnes is a polished piece of writing that suggests an educated author who was well-versed in dramatic conventions. However, Blanche Davies seems to have published nothing else and the public records are silent on individuals with this name whose dates would fit. No confirmation has been found but it is quite possible that she was Anne Elizabeth Frances Blanche Davies, born 1 Sept. 1796 to the Rev. John Davies, vicar of Andover, Hampshire, and his wife Martha, and baptised at St. Nicholas’s church in the Isle of Wight, on 18 Sept. If so, she married Edmund Henry Faucit Savill (1811-57) on 24 July 1832 in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire. Although Edmund had trained to be a doctor, he chose to follow his father, John Faucit Savill (or Saville, or Savill Faucit), into an acting career, specialising in comedy. The ODNB entry for John Faucit Saville includes a note on his son and identifies Edmund’s first wife, Anne, as an actor. They had one child, a son, who was born in London in 1834 and died in 1837. The record for Anne’s death gives her name as Anne Blanche Savill; she was buried at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on 20 Feb. 1840. Was she the author of Octavia? No firm proof has been found. (ancestry.co.uk 27 June 2024; ODNB [for John Faucit Saville]; Leeds Patriot 4 Aug. 1832) SR