The Late Mr E. P. Hingston
The eventful life of this singularly accomplished gentleman closed on Friday, the 9th inst., as we had regretfully to announce in our columns last week. In every part of the world where he had been, and he left few place unvisited, there will be those who will receive the intelligence of his decease with unaffected sorrow. In this country he leaves a large number of personal friends saddened by his loss. The severe illness under which he had long laboured left but little hope of his restoration to perfect health, yet in the social circles, where his presence was ever welcomed, the idea was still fondly cherished that he would be able for a few years longer to give the group of listeners always clustering eagerly around him the advantage of his vast store of information on nearly every subject. Mr Edward Peron Hingston, who was born about 53 years ago, was first intended to follow the medical profession, and with that view he attended a course of lectures at King's College. In 1841 he turned his attention to literature and during that and the following year he was a regular contributor to the best periodicals and magazines. For a work called Chambers's London Journal, edited in 1842 by Mr E. L. Blanchard, he wrote several essays, tales and poems, which attracted great attention at the time. A few years afterwards he became associated with Professor Anderson, and invented for the "Wizard of the North" some of his best illusions depending on the application of scientific agencies, at the same time furnishing the conjuror with the most attractive programmes ever penned. Always an admirable man of business, Mr Hingston subsequently accompanied the Wizard on his professional tours, and, after bringing these in various parts of Europe and America to highly successful issues, he filled the post of Acting-Manager when the Professor took the Covent-garden Theatre at the end of 1855. After the disastrous conflagration which destroyed that building in March 1856, Mr Hingston went with Professor Anderson to America and Australia, and finally, after years of adventurous travel, determined to settle in the Metropolis. In the autumn of 1866 he persuaded the American humorist Artemus Ward to visit England, and his association with that gentleman, whose bright career was prematurely closed by an early death, Mr Hingston has most graphically related in his two highly entertaining volumes, published seven years ago under the title of "The Genial Showman". His subsequent career may be briefly traced. He was manager for Messrs Spiers and Pond of their establishment at Margate, known as "The Hall-by-the-Sea", and in 1870 was Stage-Manager at the St. James's Theatre. The Opera Comique was under his management from October, 1872, to December, 1873, and when Messrs Spiers and Pond opened the Criterion Theatre, March 21st, 1874, and Mr E. P. Hingston was appointed their business manager. Increasing indisposition compelled him, unfortunately, very soon to resign his appointment, but a pleasant proof of the high estimation in which he was held by the members of the Dramatic and Musical Profession was afforded by the numbers who gave their gratuitous services on the occasion of the complimentary benefit given to him at Drury-lane Theatre on the 18th of March, 1875, when the proceeds amounted to more than eight hundred pounds.
The Funeral
The remains of the deceased were consigned to earth on Wednesday last at Kensal-green Cemetery. The funeral procession left Crowndale-road, Camden Town, about half past two, and arrived at the Cemetery soon after three o'clock. It consisted of a hearse containing the body and drawn by two horses; three mourning coaches, the first being occupied by Mrs Hingston (the widow) and her two sons, with Mr J. Hingston (the brother of the deceased); the second by Mrs Carte, Miss Deacon, and Mrs Deacon; the third by Mr Paton, Mr Hanlon, Mr Shepherd, and Mr Cowderoy. Then came the private carriages of Mr Andrew Halliday, Mr Pond, Mr Willing, Dr. Claremont, Mr Layver, Miss Pattie Laverne, Miss Russell, &c. On the coffin being lowered into the grave, which is situate about one hundred and fifty yards to the left of the chapel, the last-named ladies deposited thereon a couple of beautiful floral tokens of respect to the memory of the departed. Among those present we noticed Messrs C. Pond and Son, Andrew Halliday, J. Clarke, Edward Murray, Millward, W.S. Johnson, R. Reece, Willing, Pasco, Bubb, R. Smith, E. Connell, Grossmith, sen.; Leathes, Gieve, jun. (artist), Darnell (the old and faithful attendant of deceased), Simmons, Tipper, and Calvert (Spiers and Pond), Furtado, Thaddeus Wells, Miss Patti Laverne, and Miss Russell. The coffin-plate bore the simple inscription:- E. P. Hingston, Died June 9th, 1876, in his 53d year. The funeral arrangements were carried out by Mr Walter J. Heritage, of 103, Hampstead-road.
If ever there was a rolling stone, it was Mr E. P. Hingston, who died recently in London. Play writer and actor, traveller, spiritualist, Indian chief, Fiji courtier, agent and accountant, pedestrian, manufacturer of Dutch clocks, journalist, Cincinnati pig-raiser, notable "brave" amongst the Maoris and South Sea Islanders, sheep shearer in New Zealand, and store keeper in 'Frisco, - no man ever saw more phases of human life. He was at one time thought to be a Morman by the Mormans themselves of Salt Lake City. He was theatrical agent to Avonia Jones and her husband Gustavus Brookes. Home, the spiritualist, employed him, as did also Artemus Ward, Professor Anderson, Spiers and Pond, &c, &c, as business agent.
Avonia Stanhope Jones (1839 - 1867) was an American actress, best known for tragic roles. Jones' first appearance on the stage was in Apr 1856, in Cincinnati as 'Parthenia' in 'Ingomar'. She toured America extensively in various productions, including one of Romeo and Juliet in which her mother played Romeo and Jones Juliet. In 1859 she toured Australia, where she met Irish actor/producer Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, later her husband. They went to London where she made debut 5 Nov 1861 at the Drury Lane Theatre as 'Medea'. They married in Liverpool, 23 Feb 1863; he was 21 years her senior. His career was then in a steep decline, probably due to excessive use of alcohol. She returned to America in 1863 where she toured for two years before returning to England in late 1865, and brought with her an American adaption of East Lynne, in which she appeared as `Isabel'; this played to considerable success. Her husband sailed for Australia from Plymouth in early 1866 in an attempt to revive his career and was lost in the wreck of the steamship London on 11 Jan. Avonia then appeared at the New Surrey Theatre in London in another production in Feb 1866. She also played in Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester, after which she returned to America where she died of consumption in New York, 5 Oct 1867, at the age of 28. EPH was certainly managing her at the time of her husband's death but it seems unlikely that he was with her much before this.
Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced 'Hume') (1833 - 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. The family emigrated to America where he began performing in 1851. He came to England in 1856 where he performed in London. He then travelled in Continental Europe, marrying twice in St Petersburg, but seems largely to have been based in London. He died in Paris in 1886. It is not clear when EPH acted as his manager. Peter Lamont's book about Home "The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard" makes no mention of Hingston and Lamont does not believe that he employed a manager. Anderson made a point of showing that the effects attributed to spirits could be explained simply as conjuror's illusions and denounced them as charlatans.
From a web site about Mark Twain.
Edward was an experienced theatrical agent and manager. Between 1856 and 1863 he had worked for the “Wizard of the North” (John Henry Anderson, a popular magician) on tours of Australia and the United States. From 1863 to 1865 he had been the agent and friend of Artemus Ward on his American tour, as well as, since June 1866, in England. Hingston also helped John Camden Hotten become Ward’s English publisher, even providing prefaces for Hotten’s editions. Clemens had enjoyed several days of revelry with Hingston and Ward in December 1863, when Ward’s American tour brought them to Virginia City (L1, 269–70 n. 5). In this letter to Hingston, he mentioned his own recent lectures not in chronological order, but in the descending order of their paid attendance. Hingston knew what it meant to command a “crowded house” at Platt’s Music Hall (as Mark Twain had on 16 November) because three years before, Ward had done the same thing: Hingston recalled in The Genial Showman that the price of admission was “one dollar, and the receipts exceeded one thousand six hundred dollars.” Clemens estimated his own paid attendance in Platt’s Hall at fourteen hundred, while both Maguire’s Academy of Music (which he filled on 2 October) and Congress Hall (which he filled on 10 December) were smaller, with crowds estimated at twelve to thirteen hundred and seven to eight hundred, respectively. He also recalled that from these lectures he “amassed twelve or fifteen hundred dollars,” which “was about half - the doorkeeper got the rest,” an allusion to Denis McCarthy, his manager at the time (Boase, 1:63, 1482–83; Seitz, 121–29, 170, 176, 184; Hingston, 299–300; SLC to James Redpath, 22 Jan 71, NN-B; “‘Mark Twain’s’ Lecture,” Californian 5 [6 Oct 66]: 5; “Mark Twain’s Lecture,” San Francisco Morning Call, 11 Dec 66, 1; AD, 11 Apr 1906, CU-MARK, in MTA, 2:351).
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Added 17 Mar 2015 C J Burgoyne