Wignell, Thomas

Wignell, Thomas (1753–1803), American actor of English extraction, a cousin of the younger Lewis Hallam, by whom he was persuaded in 1774 to join the American Company, of which he soon became the leading man. In 1787 he was instrumental in arranging the production in New York of the first American comedy, Royall Tyler's The Contrast, and in 1789, in which year George Washington, who much admired him, attended his benefit night, he spoke the prologue to Dunlap's The Father; or, American Shandyism, in which he played the comic doctor. Shortly afterwards he left for England, where he recruited a fine company to play at the newly opened Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Among its members were James Fennell, with whom Wignell had acted in New York, and Mrs Merry, whom he married seven weeks before his death. The company soon achieved an enviable reputation, and on a visit to New York in 1797 was considered superior even to the American Company. Wignell, however, took it back to Philadelphia, where he remained until his death.