John Hayman Packer

John Moody (left) and John Hayman Packer (right) in The Register Office by Joseph Reed, 1773 engraving

John Hayman Packer (12 March 1730 – 16 September 1806) was an actor for David Garrick's company at Drury Lane. Originally a saddler, he created the character Freeman in James Townley's High Life Below Stairs (1759). His parts were usually minor and, late in life, "as a rule" old men in tragedies and sentimental comedies.

Selected roles

• Freeman in High Life Below Stairs by James Townley (1759)
• Lucius in The Siege of Aquileia by John Home (1760)
• Young Bellmont in All in the Wrong by Arthur Murphy (1761)
• Don Roderigo in Elvira by David Mallet (1763)
• Wellford in The Dupe by Frances Sheridan (1763)
• Sir John Lambert in The Hypocrite by Isaac Bickerstaffe (1768)
• Aunac in Zingis by Alexander Dow (1768)
• Zopiron in Zenobia by Arthur Murphy (1768)
• Captain Dudley in The West Indian by Richard Cumberland (1771)
• Greek Herald in The Grecian Daughter by Arthur Murphy (1772)
• Doctor Goodman in The Maid of Kent by Francis Godolphin Waldron (1773)
• Otanes in Sethona by Alexander Dow (1774)
• Stalpleton in The Choleric Man by Richard Cumberland (1774)
• Ramirez in Braganza by Robert Jephson (1775)
• Rinaldo in The Law of Lombardy by Robert Jephson (1779)
• Ali in The Fair Circassian by Samuel Jackson Pratt (1781)
• Thestor in The Royal Suppliants by John Delap (1781)
• Marlow in The Metamorphosis by William Jackson (1783)
• Gyfford in The Carmelite by Richard Cumberland (1784)
• Duke of Genoa in Julia by Robert Jephson (1787)
• Medley in The New Peerage by Harriet Lee (1787)
• Gerbin in The Regent by Bertie Greatheed (1788)
• Davison in Mary, Queen of Scots by John St John (1789)
• Archon in The Rival Sisters by Arthur Murphy (1793)
• Millden in The Wedding Day by Elizabeth Inchbald (1794)
• Leofric in Edwy and Elgiva by Fanny Burney (1795)
• David Duncan in The Last of the Family by Richard Cumberland (1797)
• Allan in The Castle Spectre by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1797)
• Old Copsley in The Will by Frederick Reynolds (1797)
• Blaise in The Castle of Montval by Thomas Sedgwick Whalley (1799)
• Prior in Julian and Agnes by William Sotheby (1801)

References

• Hughes, Alan. "Packer, John Hayman." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 22 October 2008. [1] (accessed 22 October 2008; subscriiption required).
• The Literary panorama