Mary, Lady Slingsby, born Aldridge (perhaps died 1693), was an English actress. After a marriage lasting 1670 to 1680 to John Lee, an actor, during which she was on the stage as Mrs. Lee, she was widowed. She then married Sir Charles Slingsby, 2nd Baronet, a nephew of Sir Robert Slingsby, and performed as Lady Slingsby. Theatre historians have pointed out the difficulty in identifying her roles in the period when Elinor Leigh, wife of Anthony Leigh, was performing as Mrs. Leigh, because the homophones "Lee" and "Leigh" were not consistently spelled at the time.[1]
In 1671 Mrs Lee appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields in the character of Daranthe in Edward Howard's tragi-comedy Woman's Conquest, and as Leticia in Town-Shifts, or the Suburb-Justice, attributed to Edward Revet, and licensed on 2 May 1672. Next, at Dorset Garden, where Mrs Lee remained for ten years, she played opposite Æmilia in Joseph Arrowsmith's Reformation (1672).[2][3]
InHenry VI, Part I, with the Murder of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, adapted by John Crowne from Shakespeare, and acted in 1681, the part of Queen Margaret was assigned to Lady Slingsby. In Henry VI, Part II, or the Misery of Civil War, from the same source, the same character went to Mrs Lee. As the second part was written first, and probably produced first, Mrs Lee's second marriage may have been in 1681. In Nahum Tate's adaptation of King Lear Lady Slingsby was Regan, in Nat Lee's Lucius Junius Brutus, the Father of his Country, Sempronia, and Marguerite in Lee's The Princess of Cleve.[2]
After the merger of the two major acting companies in 1682, Slingsby played, at the Theatre Royal, the Queen Mother in John Dryden and Nat Lee's Duke of Guise.[4]InThomas D'Urfey's Commonwealth of Woman, an adaptation of John Fletcher's The Sea Voyage, produced in 1685, she was Clarinda. Her name then disappeared from the bills.[2]
Her name appears on the Burdett-Coutts Memorial SundialinOld St. Pancras Churchyard, listing the names of important graves lost therein by the building of a railway line. Her date of death is given as 1693. She was probably buried on 1 March 1693, although there is some doubt as to whether the Mary Slingsby buried is this lady. It has been speculated that the name may have been withheld to prevent her husband's creditors from finding him via his wife.[5]
Mrs Lee appears as a character in the 2015 play [exit Mrs Behn] or, The Leo Play by Christopher van der Ark.
Burdett Coutts Memorial Sundial
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Slingsby, Mary". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.