Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Haines, John Thomas
HAINES, JOHN THOMAS (1799?–1843), actor and dramatist, was born about 1799. From 1823 up to the year of his death he was engaged in supplying the minor theatres of the metropolis with innumerable melodramas of the ‘blood-and-thunder’ type, which were mostly successful. His sea-plays gave full scope to the energies of T. P. Cooke [q. v.] His ‘My Poll and my Partner Joe,’ a nautical drama in three acts, produced at the Surrey Theatre on 7 Sept. 1835, yielded a profit of 4,000l. Haines occasionally acted in his own pieces. He died at Stockwell, Surrey, on 18 May 1843, aged 44, being at the time stage-manager of the English Opera House (Gent. Mag. 1843, pt. ii. p. 103). His more popular plays are: 1. ‘The Idiot Witness; or a Tale of Blood,’ a melodrama in two acts (Coburg Theatre, 1823). 2. ‘Jacob Faithful; or the Life of a Thames Waterman,’ a domestic local drama in three acts (Surrey Theatre, 14 Dec. 1834). 3. ‘Richard Plantagenet,’ an historical drama in three acts (Victoria Theatre, 1836). 4. ‘The Ocean of Life; or Every Inch a Sailor,’ a nautical drama in three acts (Surrey Theatre, 4 April 1836). 5. ‘Maidens Beware!’ an original burletta in one act (Victoria Theatre, January 1837). 6. ‘Breakers Ahead! or a Seaman's Log,’ a nautical drama in three acts (Victoria Theatre, 10 April 1837). 7. ‘Angeline Le Lis,’ an original drama in one act (St. James's Theatre, 29 Sept. 1837). 8. ‘The Charming Polly; or Lucky or Unlucky Days,’ a drama in two acts (Surrey Theatre, 29 June 1838). 9. ‘Alice Grey, the Suspected One; or the Moral Brand,’ a domestic drama in three acts (Surrey Theatre, 1 April 1839). 10. ‘Nick of the Woods; or the Altar of Revenge,’ a melodrama (Victoria Theatre, 1839). 11. ‘The Wizard of the Wave; or the Ship of the Avenger,’ a legendary nautical drama in three acts (Victoria Theatre, 2 Sept. 1840). 12. ‘The Yew Tree Ruins; or the Wreck, the Miser, and the Mines,’ a domestic drama in three acts (11 Jan. 1841). 13. ‘Ruth; or the Lass that Loves a Sailor,’ a nautical and domestic drama in three acts (Victoria Theatre, 23 Jan. 1843). 14. ‘Austerlitz; or the Soldier's Bride,’ a melodrama in three acts (Queen's Theatre). 15. ‘Amilie; or the Love Test,’ an opera in three acts. 16. ‘The Wraith of the Lake; or the Brownie's Brig,’ a melodrama in three acts. 17. ‘Rattlin the Reefer; or the Tiger of the Sea,’ a nautical drama in three acts. Haines also adapted and arranged from the French of Scribe and St. Georges the songs, duets, quartettes, recitatives, and choruses in the opera of ‘Queen for a Day,’ which, set to music by Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Surrey Theatre on 14 June 1841.
[Lacy's, Duncombe's, Cumberland's, and Webster's Collections of Plays.]