Author: Victor, Benjamin
Biography:
VICTOR, Benjamin (c. 1703-78: ODNB)
He was born probably in London, the son of Hugh Victor, “gentleman.” His background was non-conforming, which may account for the shortage of public records. The name of his mother is not known. The birthdate of 1703 is estimated on the basis of his apprenticeship in 1714, although that would have made him young to marry, as he did, in 1722. He was apprenticed to a barber surgeon in Holborn, London, in 1714. Once out of his indentures he was quick to make a start in life. He started to trade in Norwich linen and in 1722 published his first poem (defending Steele’s play The Conscious Lovers) and took his first wife. She was Mary Rooker (d 1757). They were married on 3 July 1722 at the Charterhouse Chapel and do not appear to have had children. While trading from premises on Pall Mall, Victor tried to make his name as a writer but failed to find a patron; he did bring out a biography of his friend Barton Booth, an actor (1733). In 1746 he gave up business and moved to Dublin as deputy manager of Thomas Sheridan’s (q.v.) Smock Alley theatre. After the death of his first wife he married Penelope Wolseley, an actress in the company. His public odes earned him the appointment of Poet Laureate of Ireland and a pension of £50 p.a. But Smock Alley closed in 1759 and Victor returned to London, where he was appointed Treasurer at the Drury Lane theatre, a post he kept until 1778. His major works belong to this period, a three-volume history of the theatres of London and Dublin from 1730 onward, with a chronicle of plays performed in the major London theatres (1761, 1771), and the title listed in this bibliography, Original Letters, Dramatic Pieces, and Poems (1778). Two of the plays in the second volume are in verse, as well as all the contents of Volume 3. The contents date back to the early 1720s but for the most part had not been previously published. Like his history of the theatre, not only the letters but long footnotes to the poems are full of entertaining theatrical anecdotes. Victor died in lodgings in Covent Garden on 3 Dec. 1778 and was buried on 6 Dec. at Bunhill Fields. (ODNB 9 Apr. 2024; findmypast.com 9 Apr. 2024; Highfill; OJ 5 Dec. 1778) HJ