Nannette Johnston

Nannette Johnston (born 1782) was a British stage actress and dancer active during the Regency era. She was born in London as the daughter the actor William Parker, but educated in Edinburgh where her father was working and began her career as a dancer. In 1796 she married the actor Henry Erskine Johnston, with whom she had six children, and the then went to Dublin for a season before heading to London where she acted at Covent Garden and the Haymarket. ^[1] They both moved to Drury Lane for two seasons, before returning to Covent Garden.^[2]

During a spell in Dublin in 1811 she abandoned her husband, who had been employed by the Peter Street Theatre, and began living with Thomas Harris, the manager of Covent Garden. She in turn left Harris in 1814 for a banker Harry Drummond, after which Harris released her from Covent Garden. She seems to have effectively retired apart from a benefit for the actor William A. Conway in 1816. In 1820 she was granted a divorce from Johnston and was still alive in 1826, but little is known about her later life.^[3]