The Kembles were renowned from the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century as a family of actors and actresses, based in London. The founders of the dynasty were the actor and theatre manager Roger Kemble (1722-1802) and his wife the actress Sarah Ward (1735-1807), who were the parents of the actress Sarah Siddons (1735-1831), the actor John Philip Kemble (1757-1823), the actor and theatre manager Stephen George Kemble (1758-1822), and the actor, theatre manager and playwright Charles Kemble (1775-1854).
In 1806 Charles Kemble married the actress Maria Theresa De Camp (1777-1838). The eldest of their two daughters was the actress and author Frances Anne (Fanny) Kemble (1809-93); her elder brother was John Mitchell Kemble (1807-57), Anglo-Saxonist.
There are numerous entries for members of the Kemble family in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
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Kemble family websites
- The Kemble Genealogy Page (Clive & Suzanne Astley)
- Wood Kemble Donne Sands (Ralph Kemble Wood)
Page maintained by SDK
October 2011