Catherine Huggins, known in history as Mrs W. H. Foley (2 January 1821
- 4 March 1887) was a British actor, singer, director and manager. Mrs
W. H. Foley is best known for her major contribution to early
theatrical entertainment in New Zealand between 1855-1867.Foley was
born into a theatrical family in England in 1821 as the second of ten
children to mother, Frances Pierce and father, Benjamin Edwin Huggins.
She was baptised Catherine Huggins in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, in
early 1821. Her parents and both sets of grandparents were actors, and
this theatrical heritage asserted itself in Catherine’s adult
life.Unmarried, Foley gave birth to her first child, a boy named
Charles Pierce Huggins, in March 1843. Shortly afterwards, on 17
September 1845 at St Pancras Church, London, she married her son's
father, Daniel Caparn, a chemist and druggist. A couple years later in
1847 the family emigrated to Tasmania where Foley became a dressmaker
and milliner in Hobart. Separating from her husband, Foley traveled
alone to San Francisco in June 1849, among the throngs attracted by
the California Gold Rush.In San Francisco Foley met William Henry
Foley, a charismatic clown, circus proprietor and theatrical
entrepreneur, whom she married in June 1851, becoming Mrs W. H. Foley.
Her first reported stage appearance took place in Sacramento on 23
June 1851, as Mrs W. H. Foley; she performed in a song-and-dance
troupe sharing the bill with one of her husband’s more elaborate
imported showpieces, A Great American Panorama of New York City.
- 4 March 1887) was a British actor, singer, director and manager. Mrs
W. H. Foley is best known for her major contribution to early
theatrical entertainment in New Zealand between 1855-1867.Foley was
born into a theatrical family in England in 1821 as the second of ten
children to mother, Frances Pierce and father, Benjamin Edwin Huggins.
She was baptised Catherine Huggins in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, in
early 1821. Her parents and both sets of grandparents were actors, and
this theatrical heritage asserted itself in Catherine’s adult
life.Unmarried, Foley gave birth to her first child, a boy named
Charles Pierce Huggins, in March 1843. Shortly afterwards, on 17
September 1845 at St Pancras Church, London, she married her son's
father, Daniel Caparn, a chemist and druggist. A couple years later in
1847 the family emigrated to Tasmania where Foley became a dressmaker
and milliner in Hobart. Separating from her husband, Foley traveled
alone to San Francisco in June 1849, among the throngs attracted by
the California Gold Rush.In San Francisco Foley met William Henry
Foley, a charismatic clown, circus proprietor and theatrical
entrepreneur, whom she married in June 1851, becoming Mrs W. H. Foley.
Her first reported stage appearance took place in Sacramento on 23
June 1851, as Mrs W. H. Foley; she performed in a song-and-dance
troupe sharing the bill with one of her husband’s more elaborate
imported showpieces, A Great American Panorama of New York City.
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