William Ioor

Background

William was born on January 4, 1780 in St. George's Parish, Dorchester, South Carolina, the son of John Ioor and a descendant of forebears who came to South Carolina from Holland in 1714.

Career

Ioor wrote comedies, performed in Charleston in the first decade of the nineteenth century. One of them, Independence, or, Which do you Like Best, the Peer, or the Farmer, was an adaptation of an English novel, The Independent, probably by Andrew MacDonald, but called by Ioor in his preface "anonimous. " It was first performed at the Charleston Theatre, February 26, 1805, with Mr. Hardinge playing the hero, Charles Woodville, and Mrs. Whitlock, sister of Mrs. Siddons, reading Carpenter's prologue. In the published version, printed later in 1805 by G. M. Bonnetheau, the cast of the performance of April 1 is given, which included John Hodgkinson in the role of Woodville.

Ioor's second famous play, The Battle of Eutaw Springs, and Evacuation of Charleston (1807), was produced in 1813, probably not for the first time, at the Southwark Theatre in Philadelphia, and in 1817 at the Charleston Theatre. Not so famous as the earlier play, it was, however, well received in its day.

He died in 1850.

Achievements

• William Ioor was famous primarily as the author of two comedies, that were among the early examples of patriotic drama and of the comedy of manners in America. They are Independence, or, Which do you Like Best, the Peer, or the Farmer? and The Battle of Eutaw Springs, and Evacuation of Charleston.

Works

• book

  • Independence;: Or Which do you like best, the peer, or the farmer? A comedy, in five acts. (Founded on the novel of "The independent, ") and performed ... theatre, Charleston, with unbounded applause

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• William Gilmore Simms in 1870 recalled the Ioor of some forty years earlier as a "cheery, humorous old gentleman. "

Connections

Father:

John Ioor

References

• A History of the American Drama: From the Beginning to the Civil War