Recommended by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kemble, she made, as Miss Cooke, her first appearance at Covent Garden on 28 September 1812 as Desdemona.

[4][5] After the death of Alexander Rae, the Edgar to her Cordelia and the Lear of Edmund Kean, she spoke an address for the benefit of his family on 31 October 1820.

It appears she was in a relationship with Leman Rede by 1830, a newspaper report on his death in 1847 states that they 'were united in 1830 and he left a ten year old son by that lady'.

[7] In 1835 she was at Covent Garden under David Osbaldiston, but played mainly secondary parts, and she then lapsed into performing at lesser theatres.

[1] Sarah West died at Glasgow on 30 December 1876 at the house of her great-nephew, Henry Courte Cooke, and was buried at Sighthill cemetery on 2 January 1877.

[1] Her husband, William West (1796?–1888), comedian and musical composer, lived to be called "The Father of the Stage".

After studying music under Thomas Welsh and subsequently under Charles Edward Horn, he appeared at the Haymarket Theatre in 1805 as Tom Thumb.

His glees included The Ocean King, Up Rosalie, Oh, Bold Robin Hood, and The Haaf Fishers.