Junius booth biography

​BOOTH, JUNIUS BRUTUS (1796–1852), actor, was born on 1 May 1796 in the parish of St. Pancras, London.

Through his grandmother, Elizabeth Wilkes, he claimed to be related to the famous John Wilkes, after whom one of his sons was named, and to whose influence was possibly owing his own baptismal name and that of his brother, Algernon Sidney Booth.

Richard Booth, his father, the son of a silversmith, left England while a youth for the purpose of fighting against his country in the war of American independence, was captured, escaped apparently all punishment, and settled peacefully in Queen Street, Bloomsbury, as a lawyer.

After learning printing, studying law in his father's office, accepting a commission as midshipman on board the Boxer (Captain Blyth or Bligh), and fortunately for himself not joining the ship, which soon after went down with all hands except one, Booth made in 1813 his first appearance as an