Kemble family

The most famous were Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) and her brother John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), the two eldest of the twelve children of Roger Kemble (1721–1802), a strolling player and manager of the Warwickshire Company of Comedians, who in 1753 married an actress, Sarah Ward.

In George Henry Harlow's famous painting The Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine he depicted many of the Kemble family members.

The subject of the painting comes from Henry VIII, Act II, Scene iv, and the refutation of Cardinal Wolsey, charged with obtaining Henry's divorce from his Queen, Katherine.

The production was mounted by John Philip Kemble when he took over the management of Covent Garden in 1806.

The Scottish socialite Jane Beadon was also a descendant of the Kemble family.