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WEBSTER, ALEXANDER (1707–1784), Scottish writer and minister, son of James Webster, a covenanting minister, was born in Edinburgh in 1707. Having become a minister in the church of Scotland, he propounded a scheme in 1742 for providing pensions for the widows of ministers. The tables which he drew up from information obtained from all the presbyteries of Scotland were based on a system of actuarial calculation that supplied a precedent followed by insurance companies in modern times for reckoning averages of longevity. In 1755 the government commissioned Webster to obtain data for the first census of Scotland, which he carried out in the same year. In 1753 he was elected moderator of the General Assembly; in 1771 he was appointed a dean of the Chapel Royal and chaplain to George III. in Scotland; and he died on the 25th of January 1784.

WEBSTER, BENJAMIN NOTTINGHAM (1797–1882), English actor, manager and dramatic writer, was born in Bath on the 3rd of September 1797, the son of a dancing master. First appearing as Harlequin, and then in small parts at Drury Lane, he went to the Haymarket in 1829, and was given leading comedy character business. He was the lessee of the Haymarket from 1837; he built the new Adelphi theatre (1859); later the Olympic, Princess's and St James's came under his control; and he was the patron of all the contemporary playwrights and many of the best actors, who owed their opportunity of success to him. As a character actor he was unequalled in his day, especially in such parts as Triplet in Masks and Faces, Joey Ladle in No Thoroughfare, and John Peerybingle in his own dramatization of The Cricket on the Hearth. He wrote, translated or adapted nearly a hundred plays. Webster took his formal farewell of the stage in 1874, and he died on the 3rd of July 1882. His daughter, Harriette Georgiana (d. 1897), was the first wife of Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st baron Burnham; and his son, W. S. Webster, had three children—Benjamin Webster (b. 1864; married to Miss May Whitby), Annie (Mrs A. E. George) and Lizzie (Mrs Sydney Brough)—all well known on the London stage, and further connected with it in each case by marriage.

WEBSTER, DANIEL (1782–1832), American statesman, was born in Salisbury (now Franklin), New Hampshire, on the