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LAVINIA FENTON (1708-1760)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 260 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAVINIA See also:

FENTON (1708-1760)  , See also:English actress, was probably the daughter cf a See also:naval See also:lieutenant named Beswick, but she See also:bore the name of her See also:mother's See also:husband . Her first See also:appearance was as Monimia in See also:Otway's Orphans, in 1726 at the See also:Hay-See also:market . She then joined the See also:company of players at the See also:theatre in See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields, where her success and beauty made her the See also:toast of the See also:beaux . It was in See also:Gay's See also:Beggar's See also:Opera, as Polly Peachum, that See also:Miss See also:Fenton made her greatest success . Her pictures were in See also:great demand, verses were written to her and books published about her, and she was the most talked-of See also:person in See also:London . See also:Hogarth's picture shows her in one of the scenes, with the See also:duke of See also:Bolton in a See also:box . After appearing in several comedies, and then in numerous repetitions of the Beggar's Opera, she ran away with her See also:lover See also:Charles See also:Paulet, 3rd duke of Bolton, a See also:man much older than herself, who, after the See also:death of his wife in 1751, married her . Their three See also:children all died See also:young . The duchess survived her husband and died on the 24th of See also:January 176o .

End of Article: LAVINIA FENTON (1708-1760)
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