English actress
Born 1812 Died 1858
Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett was the daughter of Frederick Hayes Macnamara, an actor, whose stage name was Mordaunt. As Miss Mordaunt she had considerable experience, especially in Shakesperean leading parts, before her first London appearance in 1829 at Drury Lane as Widow Cheerly in Andrew Cherry's (1762-1812) Soldier's Daughter. Her beauty and high spirits made her at once popular favourite in a large number of comedy parts, until in 1831 she was married to Captain John Alexander Nisbett and retired. Her husband, however, was killed the same year by a fall from his horse, and she was compelled to reappear on the stage in 1832. She was the original Lady Gay Spanker of London Assurance (1841). In 1844 she withdrew again from the stage to marry Sir William Boothby, Baronet, but on his death (1846), returned to play Lady Teazle, Portia, Constantine in the Love Chase, Helen and Julia in the Hunchback. It was in the first of these parts that she made her final appearance in 1851. She died on the 15th of January 1858.
Extracted from the entry for NISBETT, LOUISA CRANSTOUN in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.