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Mary Jane Seaman

English actress

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ6779896 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mary Jane Seaman, married name Mrs. Chippendale (1837?, Salisbury – 26 May 1888, Camberwell) was an English actress.

Life

Mary Jane Seaman was an actress who played in the provinces before playing Mrs Wellington de Boots in Joseph Stirling Coyne's comedy Everybody's Friend at the Theatre Royal, Manchester in October 1859. Under the name Miss Snowdon she made her first London appearance playing Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals at the Haymarket Theatre in 1863. In 1866 she married her fellow Haymarket actor William Henry Chippendale. She was at the Court Theatre in 1875, and at the Lyceum Theatre in 1878. She took a company to Australia, on her return succeeded Mrs Stirling as Martha in Faust at the Lyceum, and accompanied Henry Irving to the United States.

She died on 26 May 1888 at Peckham Road, Camberwell, and was buried in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery. Attractive and buxom, she won acceptance as Dowager Lady Duberly in George Colman's The Heir at Law, Mrs Candour in Sheridan's The School for Scandal, and Mrs. Hardcastle in Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mary Jane Seaman” as english actress. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1837, 1888, 1859, 1863—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1837. The account is most persuasive where Mary, Jane and Seaman can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english actress. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6779896. VIAF identifies the subject as 78343717. The Library of Congress control number is no92003416. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1837, 1888, 1859 and 1863.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mary Jane Seaman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mary Jane Seaman primary sources, Mary Jane Seaman archive and Mary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mary Jane Seaman”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mary Jane Seaman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.