An Inventory of His Collection of Nell Gwyn at the Harry Ransom
Center
Creator:
Burn, Jacob Henry, -1869
Title:
Jacob Henry Burn Collection of Nell
Gwyn
Dates:
1675-1872
Extent:
1 document box (0.42 linear feet)
Abstract:
The Jacob Henry Burn Collection of
Nell Gwyn consists of one box of notes and research material about British actress
Nell Gwyn. Included are manuscripts, handwritten notes, clippings, correspondence,
printed material, and broadsides.
Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn (also spelled Gwynn, Gwynne) was
born on February 2, 1650. Her birthplace is thought to be either Hereford, London,
or Oxford. Her mother, Ellen, ran a brothel, and the identity of her father is
not
known.
In 1664, Gwyn and her older sister, Rose, began working as "orange girls" selling oranges to patrons of the newly built Theatre in
Bridges Street, now known as the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Less than a year later,
at the age of fourteen, Gwyn began acting. After King Charles II was restored
to the
throne in 1660, he reinstated the theatre (which had previously been banned) and
legalized acting as a profession for women; earlier, women’s parts were played
by
boys or men. Her first stage appearance was in 1665 alongside the actor, Charles
Hart, in The Indian Emperour, a drama by John Dryden.
That performance was followed by several comedic roles, at which she excelled,
and
soon she became the leading comedienne of the King’s Company.
Gwyn became mistress to King Charles II in 1669 and they had two sons: Charles
Beauclerk, born in 1670, who became Earl of Burford and later, Duke of St. Albans;
and James Beauclerk, who was born in 1671 and died in 1680.
In early 1687, Gwyn suffered two strokes which left her confined to her bed. She died
on November 14, 1687 from apoplexy.
Source:
"Nell Gwyn." Encyclopedia Britannica,
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Nell-Gwyn-English-actress (accessed March
2016)
Scope and Contents
The Jacob Henry Burn Collection of Nell Gwyn consists of one box of notes and
research material about British actress Nell Gwyn. Included are manuscripts,
handwritten notes, clippings, correspondence, printed material, and broadsides
dating from 1675 to 1872. The materials were originally gathered or created by
Jacob
Henry Burn and at least one other unidentified individual.
The collection is housed in nine folders, however the material is not arranged, and
the folder contents are not necessarily indicative of any original order or
relationship between the materials within them. A large amount of the material,
especially items that originally belonged to Burn, are brittle and very fragile
and
require careful handling.
Little is known about Jacob Henry Burn, but he was the editor of several catalogues
including Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy’s A Descriptive
Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee House Tokens current in the
seventeenth century (1853). Handwritten notes and letters written to
Burn related to Gwyn are included in this collection. Many of the notes are written
on small slips of paper, and are either filed loose within the folders, or, in
some
cases, pasted onto larger sheets. A handwritten manuscript draft of a biography
of
Gwyn written by Burn is located in folder 1.5. Noteworthy in this collection is
a
transcribed copy of Gwyn’s will, located in folder 1.1.
Research material originally belonging to an unidentified individual is also included
in this collection. It consists primarily of several handwritten copies of articles
and biographies on Gwyn. These notes are differentiated from Burn’s notes by the
handwriting.
Related Material
Scripts from Nell Gwyn’s time period are located in the Ransom Center’s Pforzheimer
Collection and in the Ransom Center Library. Later material on Gwyn is located
in
the Ransom Center’s Theater Biography Collection.
