Charles Macklin - Early Life

Early Life

It is thought that Macklin was born near Culdaff, a village in Inishowen in the north of County Donegal in the province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1690, and moved to Great Britain in either 1725 or 1726; the dates in his early life are not entirely clear. According to William Archer in Eminent Actors, “at his death, Macklin was believed to be 97, but his biographers have endeavored to show that he was at least 107. The main lines of controversy are to be found in the 3 biographies of Congreve, Kirkman, and Cook” . Thomas Kirkman and William Cooke, in Eminent Actors, assert that “William MacLochlainn, father of Charles Macklin, had a daughter and a son, who were born two months previous to the Battle of Boyne, which took place in 1690”. Given this information, this would make Macklin 107 years old at his death. However, in his own words, he was born 'in the last year of the last century', making the year 1699 the year of his birth. In fact, The Monthly Mirror of February 1796, a year before his death, stated that: "Macklin, according to this statement, must be in his hundred and sixth year, or thereabouts, whereas he is in fact no more than ninety-seven".According to William Archer, author of Eminent Actors, there “were no registers of births, deaths, and marriages kept in Ireland in 1690”.

Given this information, we must once again go with the very words of Macklin himself who quoted “that he was born in the last year of the last century”. His early life may remain a mystery, but we can be certain of his age at death. His family’s surname was McLaughlin, but “seeming somewhat uncouth to the pronunciation of an English tongue,” he changed it for the English stage. He found various jobs as an actor in London, but, apparently, his thick Ulster accent was an obstacle to success and he could not find a steady theatre home until he was noticed in a small character role in Henry Fielding’s Coffee-House Politician at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1725. It was after that fine performance, that would go unnoticed by a lesser actor, that he was snatched up by the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane as an actor and a resident acting manager, serving with James Quin. Their relationship was professional, but full of plenty of animosity. Macklin devotes a lengthy section of his memoirs to Quin, giving examples of their disagreements. Macklin admits that “nothing but the necessity of business could ever make them associate together”. Even the necessity of business sometimes dissolved; however, after some contract and pay disagreements in the 1741-42 season, Macklin and nearly the entire Drury Lane resident company left and attempted to find work elsewhere.