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Daniel Terry

actor and playwright

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ5218908
Source-derived summary

Daniel Terry (1780?–1829) was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott.

Life

He was born in Bath in about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a private school at Wingfield Trowbridge, Wiltshire, under the Rev. Edward Spencer. During five years he was then a pupil of Samuel Wyatt, the architect.

Actor in the provinces

Having first played at Bath Heartwell in the Prize, Terry left Wyatt to join (in 1803 to 1805) the company at Sheffield under the management of William Macready the Elder. His first appearance was as Tressel in Richard III and was followed by other parts, Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII and Edmund in King Lear. Towards the close of 1805 he joined Stephen Kemble in the north of England.

On the breaking up in 1806 of Kemble's company, he went to Liverpool and made a success which recommended him to Henry Siddons, who brought him out in Edinburgh, 29 November 1809, as Bertrand in William Dimond's The Foundling of the Forest. On 12 December he was Antigonus in The Winter's Tale, on 8 January 1810 Prospero, and on the 29th Argyle in Joanna Baillie's The Family Legend. Walter Scott, à propos of this role, wrote: ‘A Mr.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Daniel Terry” as actor and playwright. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Daniel, Terry and actor.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1780, 1829, 1803, 1805—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1780-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Daniel, Terry and actor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Daniel Terry”, the useful work is to connect “actor and playwright” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

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 Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5218908. VIAF identifies the subject as 53046679. The Library of Congress control number is n82208091. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1780, 1829, 1803 and 1805.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “Daniel Terry”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Daniel Terry primary sources, Daniel Terry archive and Daniel 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 “Daniel Terry”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Daniel Terry” 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.