Nancy Dawson

[3] At sixteen she joined the company of a certain Griffin, a puppet-showman, who taught her to dance; and a figure dancer of Sadler's Wells, seeing her performance, found her a place at his own theatre.

[2] In her second summer season at Sadler's Wells Nancy Dawson was promoted to the part of Columbine, and in the following winter she made her first appearance at Covent Garden Theatre under Edward Shuter, in The Prophetess by Thomas Betterton.

Here for the next three years she danced in its frequent revivals, and in a variety of Christmas entertainments, such as ‘Harlequin's Invasion,’ ‘Fortunatus,’ and the ‘Enchanter’ in which there also appeared the elder Joseph Grimaldi and the Miss Baker who succeeded Nancy Dawson in popular favour as a dancer.

On Christmas Eve 1763 a pantomime called the ‘Rites of Hecate’ was produced at Drury Lane, and on that day and the 26th of the month Nancy Dawson appeared; but her name is absent from the bills of subsequent representations.

[4] The hornpipe by which she danced into fame was performed to a tune (thought to be probably by Thomas Arne)[3] which then had words set, a song called Ballad of Nancy Dawson attributed to George Alexander Stevens.

Though beard and brent charm ev’ry night And female peachum’s justly right, And filch and lockit please the sight, ‘Tis kept by Nancy Dawson.