1. Frances Alsop was the illegitimate child of Richard Daly, manager of the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, and the actress Dorothea Jordan nee Bland.
10 Facts About Frances Alsop
1. 2.
Frances Alsop's story begins in earnest in 1803 at her coming-of-age, when she was settled at her own home in Golden Square, London, all paid for by her mother.
3.
In 1806 Frances Alsop had changed her name to Frances Alsop Bettesworth, in order to receive a financial bequest from an elderly and wealthy gentleman of that name; a deal negotiated by her mother.
4.
On 1 August 1807 Frances married Thomas Alsop at St James's Church, Piccadilly, London.
5.
Frances Alsop was a clerk of the delivery of small arms in the Ordnance Office.
6.
The couple eventually separated, with Frances Alsop having passage arranged to the East Indies, where he died.
7.
Frances Alsop made her debut at the Drury Lane theatre in January 1817 with equal success, as Donna Violenta in The Wonder by Susanna Centlivre.
8.
Frances Alsop's finances seem always to have been shaky, especially after her mother's death in 1816.
9.
Frances Alsop died there from an overdose of laudanum on 2 June 1821.
10.
Frances Alsop's death is attributed to taking too much laudanum by mistake; she had been sick for several days previous to this unfortunate occurrence.