Author: Lamb, James
Biography:
LAMB, James (fl 1819)
The title-page of his only known publication identifies him as a comedian, that is, an actor. A few scraps of evidence confirm his occupation and suggest that he was a longterm resident, if not a native, of Norwich, Norfolk, which had a well established Theatre Royal as well as serving as the base for a flourishing provincial theatrical circuit. In 1811, the Norfolk Chronicle reported the death in infancy of George, youngest son of James Lamb, comedian. Lamb must therefore by that time have been married with older children already. In 1819 the Suffolk Chronicle announced that Mary Ann, “eldest daughter” of the comedian, had died of smallpox at Norwich, aged 11. This suggests that he was known in Suffolk and may have been part of the touring company that performed regularly at King’s Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Cambridge, Bury St. Edmunds, Ipswich, and Colchester as well as at Norwich. It is tempting to believe that he was the James Lamb, bachelor, who married Margaret Bensley, spinster, “both of this parish,” at St. Stephen’s, Norwich, on 29 Jul. 1804, and had numerous children baptised in local churches, but that James Lamb was a butcher according to some of the records. Another James Lamb, also a butcher, married Elizabeth Willson and baptised other children at Norwich churches in the same period—but none named George or Mary Ann. It is just conceivable, but on the face of it improbable, that he was a butcher by trade but an actor by vocation. A butcher of this name lived on to figure in the Census of 1841 but the author, who contributed short poems occasionally to the newspapers, could be the James Lamb (1778-1831) “of this parish” who was buried at St. John de Sepulchre, Norwich, on 5 May 1831. Confirmation is wanting. (ancestry.com 1 Dec. 2023; findmypast.com 1 Dec. 2023; Norfolk Chronicle 6 Apr. 1811, 29 May 1819; Suffolk Chronicle 29 July 1819; J. J. Colman, Bibliotheca Norfolciensis [1896], 1: 254)