Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bateman, Sidney Frances
BATEMAN, SIDNEY FRANCES (1823–1881), actress, was born in New York on 29 March 1823. Her father, Joseph Cowell, was an English low comedian, who settled in America, and was popular as an actor there. Her mother, who died in Sidney's infancy, was a Frenchwoman by birth. She was brought up at first on a farm purchased by her father in the wilds of Ohio, and went at a later date for a few years to a school in Cincinnati. During her residence on her father's farm, she was an especial favourite of the elder Booth (one of Cowell's most intimate friends). She married Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman [q. v.] on 10 Nov. 1839, at St. Louis in Missouri.
Mrs. Bateman wrote several popular plays. Chief among them were a comedy entitled ‘Self,’ produced at the People's Theatre in St. Louis on 6 April 1857, and a tragedy in blank verse, called ‘Geraldine, or the Master Passion,’ originally performed in 1859 at Philadelphia. Both were played for many years by the leading artists of the day; the dramatist's husband achieved great success as the original impersonator of John Unit in ‘Self,’ and, on 12 June 1865, appeared for the first time before an English audience as David of Ruthin in ‘Geraldine,’ at the Adelphi. Both parents gave themselves up, from an early period, to the dramatic education of their children. Upon her husband's death in 1875, Mrs. Bateman successfully continued the management of the Lyceum for four years, but in August 1878 she gave up (instead of selling) her lease of the theatre to Mr. Irving. Mrs. Bateman then purchased a long lease of old Sadler's Wells theatre, entirely rebuilt it, and opened it, on 9 Oct. 1879, with a revival of the dramatic version of ‘Rob Roy.’ Mrs. Batenman's management continued there until the date of her death, 13 Jan. 1881. During her brief management she brought over to England an entire American company, with an essentially American play, ‘The Danites,’ by the poet Joaquin Miller.
[Times, 14 Jan. 1881, p. 10; Era, 15 Jan. 1881, p. 8, and 22 Jan. 1881, p. 14; Academy, No. 455, pp. 70, 71; Athenæum, No. 2779, p. 173; Annual Register, 1881, p. 460.]