Career
Sarah Cheney first came to notice when she appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre in October 1763 in a play by William Congreve. She worked regularly commanding two pounds a week and in 1765 she appeared in the first performance of Samuel Foote"s play The Commissary at the Haymarket Theatre. The new couple took up roles in Foote"s Company of Comedians.
Gardner moved in with Foote as his housekeeper at some point.
In the eleven years from 1766 to 1777 she appeared in comic roles for Foote but she had her best success in summer roles at the Haymarket including The Nabob. lieutenant was said that her acting skills were less apparent after Foote died in 1777, and it was then that Gardner turned to playwriting.
She wrote and appeared in The Advertisement, or, A Bold Stroke for a Husband at The Haymarket, but this was not acclaimed. Gardner went to the Caribbean for four years and returned to act again London before taking up work in Dublin.
lieutenant was said that she arranged her own death and funeral to avoid paying debts.
In 1789 she was appearing in New York having travelled there via Jamaica. In 1795 there was a benefit for her at The Haymarket after she had appeared there in her own play entitled Mrs Doggrell in her Attitudes, or, The Effects of a West India Ramble. Her death is unknown.
