Thomas Holcroft

For other people named Thomas Holcroft, see Thomas Holcroft (disambiguation).

Thomas Holcroft (10 December 1745 – 23 March 1809) was an English dramatist, miscellanist, poet, novelist and translator. He was sympathetic to the early ideas of the French Revolution and helped Thomas Paine to publish the first part of The Rights of Man.

Thomas Holcroft
Portrait, oil on canvas, of Thomas Holcroft (1745–1809) by John Opie (1761–1807)
Born	(1745-12-10)10 December 1745 Orange Court, Leicester Fields, London
Died	23 March 1809(1809-03-23) (aged 63)
Occupation	Dramatist
Years active	1778-1802

Early life

Holcroft was born in Orange Court, Leicester Fields, London. His father had a shoemaker's shop and kept riding horses for hire, but he fell into difficulties and was reduced to hawking as a pedlar. The son accompanied his parents on their travels. He obtained work as a stable boy at Newmarket, at the stables of Hon. Richard Vernon, where he spent his evenings chiefly on miscellaneous reading and the study of music. He gradually obtained a knowledge of French, German and Italian.^[1]

When Holcroft's job at the stables came to an end, he returned to assist his father, who had resumed his trade of shoemaker in London. Around 1765, he became a teacher in a small school in Liverpool. However, he failed in an attempt to set up a private school, and instead became the prompter in a Dublin theatre. He went on to act in various strolling companies until 1778, when he produced the play The Crisis; or, Love and Famine, at Drury Lane. Duplicity followed in 1781.^[1]