Editing Sophia Baddeley

{{short description|British actress}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name       = Sophia Baddeley
| image      = Sophia Baddeley by Johan Zoffany (cropped).jpg
| caption    = Sophia Baddeley in a detail from a painting by [[Johan Zoffany]]
| birth_date  = {{birth-date|1745}}<ref name="tele" />
| birth_place = London, England
| birth_name=Sophia Snow
| death_date = {{death-date|1786}}<ref name="system" />
| death_place = 
| death_cause = 
| occupation = actor
| known_for  = [[Courtesan]]
| title      = 
| children   = 
| spouse     = [[Robert Baddeley (actor)|Robert Baddeley]]
| website    = 
}}

'''Sophia Baddeley''' born '''Sophia Snow''' (1745 &ndash; July 1786) was an English actress, singer and [[courtesan]].<ref name="tele">{{Cite news|last1=Hastings|first1=Selina|title=The way up was horizontal|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3600706/The-way-up-was-horizontal.html|website=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=21 March 2018|date=17 August 2003}}</ref>

== Early life, musical career ==
She was born in London, the daughter of Mary and [[Valentine Snow]], who was the sergeant-trumpeter to [[George II of Great Britain|George II]].<ref name="system">{{cite web|title=Baddeley, Sophia|url=http://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SBA002|website=System Simulation|access-date=21 March 2018|language=en}}</ref> As a child, she was trained by her father for a future musical career.<ref name="highfill">{{cite book|last1=Highfill Jr|first1=Philip H.|last2=Burnim|first2=Kalman A.|last3=Langhans|first3=Edward A.|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: Abaco to Belfille|date=1973|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=9780809305179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8IutzpP0sYC&q=Sophia+Baddeley&pg=PA202|language=en}}</ref> 
[[file:Sophia Baddeley00.jpg|left|thumb|Mrs Baddeley in the role of [[Joan of Arc]]]]
At the age of eighteen she eloped with the actor [[Robert Baddeley (actor)|Robert Baddeley]],<ref name="system" /> then on the stage at [[Drury Lane]]. She made her first appearance on 27 April 1765, as Ophelia in ''[[Hamlet]].''<ref name="system" /><ref name="highfill" /> She also played Cordelia in ''[[King Lear]]'', Imogen in ''[[Cymbeline]]'' and later Olivia in ''[[Twelfth Night]]''.<ref name="system" /> In 1769, she joined [[David Garrick]]'s theatre company when he staged the [[Shakespeare Jubilee|Stratford Jubilee]]. In that year she appeared in a Royal Command Performance of [[The Clandestine Marriage]] on 12 October. She appeared as Fanny Sterling with Robert as Canton and Thomas King as Lord Ogleby. These three were painted in that role by [[Johan Zoffany]] and the painting is now owned by the [[Garrick Club]].<ref name="garr">{{Cite web|url=http://garrick.ssl.co.uk/object-g0023|title=CollectionsOnline {{!}} G0023|website=garrick.ssl.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-07-21}}</ref>

Baddeley was noted as a talented singer rather than as an actress, she obtained engagements at [[Ranelagh Gardens|Ranelagh]] and [[Vauxhall Gardens|Vauxhall]] Gardens to public acclaim.<ref name="highfill" />

== Life as a courtesan ==
At the height of her success and after separating from her husband in 1770, she discovered that she could sustain herself financially by finding wealthy benefactors and establishing herself as a courtesan to them. Probably her best-known lover was [[Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne]].<ref name="tele" /> She was famous for her beauty, and was also noted for her extravagant lifestyle.<ref name="tele" /> Her overspending and ultimate failure in managing her finances eventually obliged her to take refuge from her creditors in [[Dublin]], Ireland<ref name="highfill" /> and later [[Edinburgh]], Scotland.<ref name="highfill" /> Her benefactors gone, and her own health in decline, she made her last appearance on the stage in [[Edinburgh]] in 1785. 

She died of consumption, aged 41, the following year<ref name="highfill" /><ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+sentimental+satire+of+Sophia+Baddeley.-a0184613121 Free Library: "The Sentimental Satire of Sophia Baddeley"]. Accessed 26 February 2013</ref> at her lodging at Shakespeare Square in Edinburgh at the east end of [[Princes Street]].<ref>Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.346</ref>

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last1=Steele|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Bicknell|first2=Alexander|title=The memoirs of Mrs. Sophia Baddeley, late of Drury Lane Theatre|date=1787|publisher=London, The author|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofmrssoph56stee}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hickman|first1=Katie|title=Courtesans|date=2003|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780007113910|edition=1st|language=en|id= {{ASIN|0007113919|country=uk}}}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hickman|first1=Katie|title=Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century|date=2003|publisher=William Morrow & Company|isbn=9780066209555|edition=First |language=en|id= {{ASIN|0066209552|country=uk}}}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Baddeley, Robert}} Sophia is the subject of the second half of this article.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baddeley, Sophia}}
[[Category:1745 births]]
[[Category:1786 deaths]]
[[Category:English courtesans]]
[[Category:Actresses from London]]
[[Category:English women singers]]
[[Category:18th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]