Other Events:

• Residence: 1734, West Side of Charles Street, London
• Will: 02 Feb 1769
• Probate: 03 Mar 1773

Notes:

--- "The Public Advertiser" 24 Sep 1772, page 3:
We are informed that Mrs. Booth, who has lately erected a Monument to the Memory of her Husband, Barton Booth, Esq; the celebrated Player, is now upwards of ninety-two Years of Age. She was formerly the famous Miss Santlow, so much admired as an Actress and Dancer.

--- "Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement" Volumes 19-20, 1773, page 160:
[Jan.1773]15. At London, Mrs Booth, relict of Barton Booth, Esq; who died in 1733, to whose memory she had erected an elegant monument in Westminster-abbey, which she had compleated just before her death.

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-- "The Streets of London" by W.H. Davenport Adams, 1890, page 153:
Mrs. Barton Booth -- Gay's "Santlow, famed for dance" -- died here in 1773. Miss Hester Santlow's charms brought to her feet some of the most eminent men of the time, including "the hero of Blenheim." In 1709 [sic] she married Barton Booth the great actor, bringing with her an ample dowry. After her marriage she abandoned the ballet, and made her appearance as Dorcas Zeal, in Shadwell's Fair Quaker of Deal, with genuine success. "The gentle softness of her voice," says Cibber, "the composed innocence of her aspect, the modesty of her dress, the reserved decency of her gesture, and the simplicity of the sentiments that naturally fell from her, made her seem the amiable maid she represented." She survived her husband forty years.

--- "Some Account of the English Stage" Vol. 3 by John Genest, 1832, page 375:
Mrs. Hester Booth in all probability did not act after this season -- she seems to have been a pleasing actress with no great powers -- Theophilus Cibber speaking of her as Mrs. Santlow says -- "She was a beautiful woman, lovely in her countenance, delicate in her form, a pleasing actress, and a most admirable dancer; generally allowed, in the last mentioned part of her profession, to have been superiour to all who had been seen before her, and perhaps she has not been since excelled."

--- "The Lives and Characters of the Most Eminent Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and Ireland" Part 1, by Theophilus Cibber, page 33:
In the year 1719 Mr. Booth married the celebrated Mrs. Hester Santlow: --- She was a beautiful Woman, lovely in her Countenance, delicate in her form, a pleasing Actress, and a most admirable Dancer; generally allowed, in the last-mentioned part of her profession, to have been superior to all who had been seen before her, and perhaps she has not been since excelled: -- But, to do her Justice, she was more than all this, -- she was an excellent good wife; -- which he has frequently, in my hearing, talked of in such a Manner, as nothing but a sincere heart-felt gratitude could express; and I was often an eyewitness (our families being intimate) of their conjugal felicity. Her tender careful attendance on him, during his tedious illness, will not soon be forgot by his friends.

--- "The Dancing Master" Translated from French by J. Essex, 1728:
We have had a great many women attempt to be Theatrical Dancers, but none ever arrived to that height and pitch of applause as the incomparable Mrs. Booth, in whom art and nature are so beautifully wove together, that the whole web is of a piece so exquisitely formed to length and breadth, that the produce of the many different characters she represents is the wonder and admiration of the present age, and will scarce be credited by the succeeding. I shall beg leave to mention the Chaconne, Saraband, Menuet, in all which she appears with that grace, softness, and address none can look on but with attention, pleasure and surprise. She far excels all that went before her, and must be the just subject of imitation to all that dare attempt to copy after her. Besides all these, the Harlequin is beyond description, and the Hussar another opposite character in which she has no rival. All which show how many extensive as well as extraordinary qualifications must concentre in one person to form so bright a genius: A subject becoming the most elevated wit to describe, and the politest taste to contemplate.

--- "The Cornhill Magazine" Vol. 16 - 20, 1867, page 477:
Wilks looked at this "hash," and did not object to it. He was to play Orlando himself, he said, and he did, having for the first Rosalind on record as played by a woman, Mrs. Booth, the "Santlow, famed for dance," of Gay. Wonderful woman she was, with her dash of aristocratic beauty, and her all-conquering ways, and her supreme love for her husband; in token of which, and to indicate her enduring sorrow thirty years after his death, this first of our Rosalinds erected the tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey, which still exists, but which, through dust, damp, and darkness, can now be deciphered only with difficulty.
. . . A handsomer pair than the Orlando and Rosalind who presented themselves on the stage of Drury Lane, on the 9th of January, 1723, the stage could not then supply. How they acted is nowhere on record; but Wilks's Orlando must have lacked no grace the part demanded; and Mrs. Booth's Rosalind was, in all probability, marked by more sauciness than passionate feeling in sentiment or expression. One thing is certain, that the public did not take to the piece kindly, and that they manifested a desire to have Shakspeare's original play, and not Johnson's mangling of three or four, to make an imperfect medley out of one perfect whole.
Whence came this English Rosalind no biography can tell. She first took the town by storm as a dancer. Terpsichore herself seemed to have visited the earth in the person of Hester Santlow, one of whose great points in the ballet was to let her clustered auburn hair suddenly loose over a pair of lustrous shoulders that carried the hearts of the whole house upon them. She was so full of fascination that even Marlborough would have given her gold for a smile; and Craggs, a cold Secretary of STate, did give her a house, where he was master and she was mistress. The daughter of that equivocal household married (successively) into the families of Hamilton and Eliot, whereby the present Marquis of Abercorn and Earl of St. German's are representatives or descendants of the earliest of our English Rosalinds, who left the ballet for comedy, but who was hardly equal to the exigencies of Shakspearean dramas. Yet her gifts were many; she had a soft, sweet voice, a refined aspect, and much intelligence, but she who originated, with such marked success the part of Dorcas Zeal left no mark in Rosalind.

Family/Spouse: James Craggs. James (son of James Craggs and Elizabeth Richards) was born on 09 Apr 1686 in Westminster, London; died on 16 Feb 1720/21; was buried on 01 Mar 1720/21 in Henry VII's Chapel (N. Aisle), Westminster Abbey, London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Harriot Craggs was born in Feb 1712/13; died on 01 Feb 1769; was buried on 01 Feb 1769 in Outside Chancel Window (Looking in Port Eliot Garden), St. German's Church, St. Germans, Cornwall, England.

Hester married Barton Booth on 03 Aug 1719 in Chipping Ongar, Essex. Barton was born in 1681; died on 10 May 1733; was buried on 14 May 1733 in St. Laurence Church, Cowley, Middlesex. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:

--- Faculty Office Marriage Licences Transcription on FindMyPast.co.uk
First name(s) BARTON
Last name BOOTH
Licence year 1719
Licence date 30 Jul 1719
New calender date 30 Jul 1719
Bride's first name(s) Hester
Bride's last name SANTLOW
Groom's first name(s) Barton
Groom's last name BOOTH
Place Dioceses of England & Wales
Record set Faculty Office Marriage Licences
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Marriages & divorces
Collections from Great Britain

---
Name Barton Booth
Event Type Marriage
Event Date 03 Aug 1719
Event Place , Ongar, Essex, England
residence Place St Giles Middlesex
Gender Male
Marital Status Widowed
Spouse's Name Hester Santlow
Spouse's residence Place St Paul Covent Garden
Spouse's Marital Status Single

John married Joan "Joana" Kingswell on 02 Feb 1685/86 in All Saints, Godshill, Isle of Wight, Hampshire. Joan died before 20 Apr 1724; was buried on 20 Apr 1724 in St. Laurence Church, Cowley, Middlesex. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

--- "London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812" (Hillingdon, St Laurence, Cowley, 1562-1768, image 39 of 50):
Apr ye 20th 1724 Then Jone Santeloe of ye Parish of Hillingdon was buried.

Notes:

Married:

Indexing Project (Batch) Number M05996-1
Name John Saintelo
Spouse's Name Joan Kingswell
Event Date 02 Feb 1685
Event Place Godshill Isle Of Wight,Hampshire,England