Hariet Pye Esten

Harriet Pye Esten (nee Bennett) (1765-1865) as Belvidera in 'Venice Preserved'  1791 Etching by Thornthwaite after painting by Samuel DeWilde (1748-1832), 3 1/4 x 4 5/8 inches Publisher J. Bell.  Whole-length portrait, kneeling, holding up large veil with hand, outside of building..  Original in Collection of University of Illinois Library.  [This image is in the public domain because the copyright has expired]

Esten's successes in the provinces made her ambitious of a London engagement. The first attempt, nevertheless, does not seem to have been successful: 'Mrs. Esten is not engaged at Drury Lane,' says The Rambler's Magazine in May, 1789.  Jephson was consulted with respect to her performance in Ireland, and a most melancholy account he gave, 'With her borrowed manner and her general faintness,' he said, 'she could only suggest the idea of Mrs. Siddons in a consumption.'

Soon after the York engagement, however, she achieved her ambition. Jackson [the manager of the Edinburgh theatre] was sorry to lose her, but Harris's offers were too advantageous to be refused.  Making her first appearance in London at Covent Garden on October. 20, 1790, as Rosalind in As You Like It.'  This seems to have been one of her most successful roles. Her grace and beauty captivated the town, and most critics echoed the words of The World newspaper: 'She looked and acted divinely.'

Mrs. Esten continued to appear at Covent Garden, where she attracted large audiences, until 1794, when she retired. 'She was a very pretty woman,' says Genest, ' and a good actress.'

In 1803 Esten appeared once more at the Edinburgh Theatre for a short time, her salary being £50 a night. From this time onwards she was much less noticed by the newspapers, which suggests that she was leading a quiet and reputable life. She does not seem to have returned to the stage again.  Michael Kelly tells how he gave singing lessons at Musselburgh in 1803 to her 'lovely, amiable, and highly accomplished daughter'.

On October 15th, 1812, Mrs. Esten became the third wife of Major John Scott-Waring, the indiscreet agent of Warren Hastings. Soon after the marriage, Major Scott- Waring moved from his former residence, Peterborough House, Fulham, to the house in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, where Mrs. Esten had been living for many years. The marriage of the famous couple elicited the epigram of doubtful taste: 'Although well known for ages past, She's not the worse for Waring.'

Except for her connection with the Duke of Hamilton, to whom she was a faithful wife in all but name for many years, nothing appears to be known against her reputation. The spiteful account of her career in 'The Fashionable Cypriad' (1799), is wholly plagiarized from 'The Secret History of the Green-Room.'  She outlived Major Scott-Waring, who died at Half Moon Street on May 5, 1819, by nearly forty-six years, surviving until April 29, 1865. It is amazing that a lady whose grandfather was born in the reign of Charles II. should be alive two years after the marriage of Queen Alexandra!

The announcement of her death appeared in The Times on May 2: 'On April 29, at 36 Queen's Gate Terrace, Kensington, at a very advanced age, Harriet, widow of the late Major Scott-Waring, E.I.C.S.' She is reputed to have been a hundred years old.

[Text based on an article by Horace Bleakley in NOTES AND QUERIES: a Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers etc..  TWELFTH SERIES-VOLUME III, JANUARY DECEMBER, 1917.]


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Hariet Pye Esten

Portrait of Harriet Pye Esten (nee Bennett) (1765-1865)  1793  Etching  3 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches. Half-length portrait, wearing dress with ruffles.  Original in Collection of University of Illinois Library.  [This image is in the public domain because the copyright has expired]


Esten's second 'marriage'

Mrs Esten made her first appearance in London at Covent Garden on Oct. 20, 1790, as Rosalind in As You Like It. About this period Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, who a couple of years previously had quarrelled with his Duchess in consequence of a notorious liaison with the wife of a Scottish peer, fell in love with the new star.

In July, 1789, the actress and her husband had executed a deed of separation, James Esten having sought refuge from his creditors in France.  His deserted wife was unable to resist the blandishments of the gay and gallant Duke. Thenceforth she became mistress of his home, and it was the general belief that if they had both been able to obtain a divorce he would have married her.

Soon afterwards Jackson, the Edinburgh manager, fell into pecuniary difficulties, and sought to obtain a partner with money. In the midst of his embarrassments he entered into negotiations both with Mrs. Esten and Stephen Kemble, finally accepting the latter as a lessee towards the end of 1791.  The actress, however, was bent upon obtaining the theatre ; and the Duke of Hamilton being one of the patentees, she managed not only to eject Kemble from his house, but to prevent him from performing at all in the city. An account of the dispute, which involved much litigation and caused great excitement at the time, will be found in the monograph of Stephen Kemble in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.'

In July 1794 she gave birth to her daughter, Anne Douglas Hamilton, of whom the Duke was the father.

Though her theatrical' career had been so short, she had become a celebrity, and the numerous paragraphs concerning her that continued to appear in the newspapers for many years subsequently show the public had not forgotten her.

In 1797 James Esten returned to England from St. Domingo with a fortune, it is said, of £200,000. and on July 4th of the same year he obtained a divorce from his wife in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London. His attempt to get the sentence confirmed by the House of Lords was a failure, for the Bill to dissolve the marriage was rejected on March 2, 1798.  It was believed that the Hamilton family influenced this decision, fearing that if the divorce took place the Duchess of Hamilton might follow Mr. Esten's example, and so leave the Duke free to marry his mistress.  According to one statement they were already divorced by the law of Scotland. The connection, how ever, was terminated by the Duke of Hamilton's death on August 1, 1799. He had been very generous to her during his lifetime, and is said to have left her an annuity of £3,000.

Mrs. Esten was beautiful, talented, and successful, and her career is surely one of the most marvellous in theatrical annals. When she was born George III. was a young man; at the time of her death Queen Victoria was a middle-aged lady. When she was a girl the stage coach occupied twelve days in travelling from London to
Edinburgh; the railway train did the journey in as many hours when she was an old woman. It is probable that she saw Garrick act; it is possible that she may have seen Henry Irving.

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