James Quin (24 February 1693 â€" 21 January 1766) was an English actor
of Irish descent.Quin was born in King Street, Covent Garden, London,
an illegitimate son of James Quin, an Irish-born barrister, and his
partner (whom he apparently never lawfully married) Mrs. Grinsell. He
was the grandson of Mark Quin, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1667-8. William
Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was his first cousin. He was
educated in Dublin, and probably spent some time at Trinity College,
Dublin. His grandfather, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who caused a
sensation by committing suicide in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin in
1674, was one of the richest men in Dublin. James unsuccessfully
claimed a share of the family fortune, but he could not prove that his
parents had been lawfully married, since his mother had a previous
husband who was generally believed to be still alive.Soon after his
father's death in 1710, he made his first appearance on the stage at
Abel in Sir Robert Howard's The Committee at the Smock Alley Theatre.
Quin's first London engagement was in small parts at Drury Lane, and
he secured his first triumph at Bajazet in Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane,
on 8 November 1715. The next year he appeared as Hotspur at Lincoln's
Inn, where he remained for fourteen years.On 10 July 1718 he was
convicted of manslaughter for having killed William Bowen, another
actor, in a duel which the victim had himself provoked. Quin was not
severely punished, the affair being regarded as more of an accident
than a crime. The public took a similar view of another episode in
which Quin, on being attacked by a young actor who had been angered by
the sarcastic criticism of his superior, drew his sword upon him and
killed him.
of Irish descent.Quin was born in King Street, Covent Garden, London,
an illegitimate son of James Quin, an Irish-born barrister, and his
partner (whom he apparently never lawfully married) Mrs. Grinsell. He
was the grandson of Mark Quin, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1667-8. William
Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was his first cousin. He was
educated in Dublin, and probably spent some time at Trinity College,
Dublin. His grandfather, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who caused a
sensation by committing suicide in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin in
1674, was one of the richest men in Dublin. James unsuccessfully
claimed a share of the family fortune, but he could not prove that his
parents had been lawfully married, since his mother had a previous
husband who was generally believed to be still alive.Soon after his
father's death in 1710, he made his first appearance on the stage at
Abel in Sir Robert Howard's The Committee at the Smock Alley Theatre.
Quin's first London engagement was in small parts at Drury Lane, and
he secured his first triumph at Bajazet in Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane,
on 8 November 1715. The next year he appeared as Hotspur at Lincoln's
Inn, where he remained for fourteen years.On 10 July 1718 he was
convicted of manslaughter for having killed William Bowen, another
actor, in a duel which the victim had himself provoked. Quin was not
severely punished, the affair being regarded as more of an accident
than a crime. The public took a similar view of another episode in
which Quin, on being attacked by a young actor who had been angered by
the sarcastic criticism of his superior, drew his sword upon him and
killed him.
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