Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/382

 left him a handsome legacy, but on finding there were poor relations of hers existing, he quietly went to the Bank of England and transferred the whole amount to them. His wife died four years before him, and he left several children.

This author's works, being considered by the baptists as a complete and unanswerable vindication of their doctrines, were collected and published in three volumes, London, 1813, 8vo, as ‘The Works of Abraham Booth,’ &c., but without comprising his writings on pædobaptism. In 1829 his ‘Pædobaptism Examined,’ &c., was republished in four volumes, 8vo, by the committee of the Particular Baptist Fund. Booth's portrait, engraved by Mackenzie, appears in William Jones's ‘Essay on Booth,’ Liverpool, 1808, and one engraved by Ridley and Hall is in the ‘Baptist Ann. Reg.’ 1800.

 BOOTH, BARTON (1681–1733), actor, was the youngest son of John Booth, a Lancashire squire, nearly related to the Earl of Warrington. Three years after his birth his father, whose estate was impaired, came to London and settled in Westminster. At nine years of age Booth was sent to Westminster School, then under the management of Dr. Busby. A taste for poetry soon developed itself. For Horace, according to a statement of Maittaire, who was at that time an usher in the school, he had ‘a particular good taste,’ and he delighted much ‘in repeating parts of plays and poems, especially from Shakespear and Milton.' ‘In his latter plays,’ continues Maittaire, as quoted by Theophilus Cibber in his ‘Life of Booth' (p. 2), ‘ I have heard him repeat many passages from the "Paradise Lost" and "Samson Agonistes," &c., with such feeling, force, and natural harmony as might have waked the lethargic and made even the giddy attentive. A performance of Pamphilus in a customary representation of the ‘Andria’ of Terence attracted much attention to Booth, secured him the consideration of Dr. Busby and his successor Dr. Knipe, and filled him with stage fancies. When, accordingly, it was proposed to remove him to Trinity College, Cambridge, preparatory to his entering the church, he took motion on his own behalf with a view to adopting the stage as a profession. An application to Betterton was unsuccessful, the great actor not caring, it is supposed, to encourage a youth of family to take a step distasteful to his friends. Booth accordingly proceeded in June 1698 to Dublin and offered his services to Ashbury, the lessee of Smock Alley Theatre. An untrustworthy account of Booth, which has been accepted by Galt in his ‘Lives of Actors,' represents him as having run away from Trinity College, Cambridge, joined a travelling company, and been the hero of some comic adventures. Ashbury gave the fugitive an engagement, or at least allowed him to appear. This he did in the character of Oroonoko, with sufficient success to obtain from the manager a much-needed douceur of five guineas. Records concerning the Irish stage are more untrustworthy even than those of the English. To this it must be attributed that Hitchcock's ‘Historical View of the Irish Stage’ mentions Booth, who, however, may possibly, though for many reasons it is improbable, have been another actor of the name, as playing about 1695—when he could only have been fourteen years of age—Colonel Bruce in ‘The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub, ‘Freeman in ‘She would if she could,' and Medley in ‘The Man of Mode,' all by Etherege. After two seasons in Dublin Booth determined to try his fortune in London. He quitted Ireland accordingly, and, furnished with an introduction from Lord Fitzharding, lord of the bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark, made a second application to Betterton. Bowman the actor was also instrumental in bringing him to the notice of Betterton. This time Booth was successful. Before his first appearance at Lincoln's Inn Fields which took place in 1700 as Maximus in ‘Valentinian,’ he is supposed to have played in a country company. So complete and immediate was the triumph of Booth, that Rowe, who in the year 1700 brought out an 'Ambitious Stepmother,' confided to him the part of Artabun. At Lincoln’s Inn Fields Booth, remained playing secondary characters until 1704, in which year he married Frances Barkham, a daughter of Sir William Barkham, bt., of Norfolk. This lady died about 1710 without issue. A free liver at first, Booth took warning by the contempt and distress in which drunkenness had plunged Powell, forswore all excess in drinking, and had resolution enough to keep his vow. On 17 April 1705 Booth accompanied Betterton to the new theatre erected by Sir John Vanbrugh in the Haymarket; on 15 Jan. 1708 he appeared with the associated companies at Drury Lane, playing Ghost to the Hamlet of Wilks. In the year 1713 the star of Booth rose in the ascendant. Although kept in the background by Wilks, who 