John Hayman Packer

File:Mr Moody and Mr Packer in the farce of the Register Office Saunders.jpg

John Moody (left) and John Hayman Packer (right) in The Register Office by Joseph Reed, 1773 engraving

John Hayman Packer (12 March 1730 – 16 September 1806) was an actor for David Garrick's company at Drury Lane. Originally a saddler, he created the character Freeman in James Townley's High Life Below Stairs (1759). His parts were usually minor and, late in life, "as a rule" old men in tragedies and sentimental comedies.

Selected roles

• Freeman in High Life Below Stairs by James Townley (1759)
• Lucius in The Siege of Aquileia by John Home (1760)
• Young Bellmont in All in the Wrong by Arthur Murphy (1761)
• Don Roderigo in Elvira by David Mallet (1763)
• Wellford in The Dupe by Frances Sheridan (1763)
• Sir John Lambert in The Hypocrite by Isaac Bickerstaffe (1768)
• Aunac in Zingis by Alexander Dow (1768)
• Zopiron in Zenobia by Arthur Murphy (1768)
• Captain Dudley in The West Indian by Richard Cumberland (1771)
• Greek Herald in The Grecian Daughter by Arthur Murphy (1772)
• Doctor Goodman in The Maid of Kent by Francis Godolphin Waldron (1773)
• Otanes in Sethona by Alexander Dow (1774)
• Stalpleton in The Choleric Man by Richard Cumberland (1774)
• Ramirez in Braganza by Robert Jephson (1775)
• Rinaldo in The Law of Lombardy by Robert Jephson (1779)
• Ali in The Fair Circassian by Samuel Jackson Pratt (1781)
• Thestor in The Royal Suppliants by John Delap (1781)
• Marlow in The Metamorphosis by William Jackson (1783)
• Gyfford in The Carmelite by Richard Cumberland (1784)
• Duke of Genoa in Julia by Robert Jephson (1787)
• Medley in The New Peerage by Harriet Lee (1787)
• Gerbin in The Regent by Bertie Greatheed (1788)
• Davison in Mary, Queen of Scots by John St John (1789)
• Archon in The Rival Sisters by Arthur Murphy (1793)
• Millden in The Wedding Day by Elizabeth Inchbald (1794)
• Leofric in Edwy and Elgiva by Fanny Burney (1795)
• David Duncan in The Last of the Family by Richard Cumberland (1797)
• Allan in The Castle Spectre by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1797)
• Old Copsley in The Will by Frederick Reynolds (1797)
• Blaise in The Castle of Montval by Thomas Sedgwick Whalley (1799)
• Prior in Julian and Agnes by William Sotheby (1801)

References

• Hughes, Alan. "Packer, John Hayman." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 22 October 2008. [1] (accessed 22 October 2008; subscriiption required).
• The Literary panorama