Event Comment: Benefit
for Mrs Woodman, late of
Covent Garden, left a Widow with five Children. By Per
mission of the
Lord Chamberlain. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. To begin at 6:00 p.m. [
Public Advertiser, 21 Feb., contained a long letter concerning the small attendance on this occasion: "One of the finest Female Singers this Country has
for many years produced is now, through a Series of Mis
fortunes as unavoidable as un
foreseen, in a State of Wretchedness scarcely credible. [Her husband, a schoolteacher, died.] Alas! she had five helpless innocent to drink of the same bitter Cup, to harrow up all the Heartstrings of a Mother, and to tear her Soul unavailingly
for that Support, of which she herself was depriv'd by the Death of their Father. [The expenses of the benefit per
formance exceeded the receipts of the house.] Calamity became heaped upon Calamity, and she is now weeping in a Prison, over her unhappy little ones,
for a Sum not exceeding #50." Appeal is made
for gifts to relieve her. On 23 May, Mrs Woodman released from prison, gave a Benefit Concert at the
Crown and Anchor Tavern, concluding with an
Occasional Musical Address to the Town called
The Grateful Acknowledgment, written and the music compiled from a most eminent Master by
Adam Smith, sung by Mrs Woodman.