Charlotte Wattell

Charlotte Wattell (5 October 1770 – December 1812) was an English actress of the late 18th and early 19th-centuries and the first wife of the churchman Thomas James Twisleton. Born in London in 1770 as Charlotte Anne Frances Wattell, the daughter of John Wattell (died 1824) and Caroline née Stonehouse (1743-1829), the sister of Sir John Stonehouse, she was the first wife of Thomas Twisleton. Marriage and the stage Her first marriage was at about the age of 17, the result of an elopement with Thomas James Twisleton, the second son of Thomas Twisleton, 13th Baron Saye and Sele; he was also aged 17 and a pupil at Westminster School when their mutual interest in amateur dramatics brought them together. He had already acted in school plays in Latin and had also appeared in more recent works with his mother and sister and other amateur actors at Adlestrop House. In May 1788 he and Wattell had played together as Mentevole and Julia in an amateur performance of Julia by Robert Jephson, at Freemasons' Hall, London, and in September of that year they eloped and were married at Gretna Green in Scotland, going through a more regular wedding ceremony after at St. Marylebone Church in London on 4 November 1788. The newspapers at the time reported on the marriage of the second son of a lord to a minor provincial heiress, and this interest only increased when the couple continued acting in amateur dramatics, before turning professional. They performed together at Adlestrop House and elsewhere for a year or so, attracting public attention. If reports from the time are true, the couple were under no financial necessity to act as Charlotte Wattell had a considerable fortune, as recorded in one newspaper on 8 October 1788: "Mr Twistleton, by his marriage with Miss Wattle, has got possession of an amiable little girl, that must make any man the happiest of Triflers: -- the lady's age is about eighteen and her fortune about £4,000".