Mary Ann Dyke Duff was born in 1794 in London, England. She was the daughter of an Englishman, about whom little is known, except that he died in the service of the East India Company and left his wife and three daughters with small means of support.
On December 31, 1809 Mary made her début in Boston at the Old Federal Street Theatre in the rôle of Shakespeare’s Juliet.
During the following eight years she studied her art diligently and in February 1818 she appeared again as Juliet and was then acclaimed a great tragic actress.
On December 4, 1827, she returned to London, where she played with some success at the Drury Lane Theatre.
She remained in England only a short time, however, and on May 20, 1828, she was again back in America.
The following year Mrs. Duff continued to play, but with little success.
She made her last appearance in New York, on November 30, 1835, and shortly after returned to her home in Philadelphia.
Mrs. Seaver continued her work on the stage, appearing under her former name, Mrs. Duff, and playing throughout the South with great success.
After her retirement from the stage, she was active in religious work.
Although Duff had been brought up in the Catholic faith, she renounced Roman Catholicism for Methodism.
Quotes from others about the person
“She was endowed by nature with every mental faculty and physical requisite for pure tragedy. ” (Joseph Ireland)
Mary Ann married a young actor, John Duff, whom she had met during her engagement at Dublin Theatre, and with him sailed for America immediately after their marriage, in 1810.
She married a man by the name of Charles Young; the marriage, however, was never acknowledged by Mrs. Duff, and was legally dissolved soon after.
She married a man by the name of Seaver, a young lawyer of Philadelphia.
She was the mother of ten children; seven of these, four sons and three daughters, reached maturity.
