HORTON, Priscilla [Mrs German Reed](b Birmingham, 1 January 1818; d Bexley Heath, Kent, 18 March 1895)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century vocalist Priscilla Horton. To describe Horton as a vocalist is to give her not quite her full due. For Miss Horton was, first and foremost, an actress. And her beautiful singing voice was, for much of her time as a theatrical performer, used largely as an adjunct to her acting skills. Miss Horton and her career have been much written about, not least because of her connection, in her later years, with the young W S Gilbert. But most of what has been written is fairly bare and not always correct. Part of the 'bareness' is insofar as concerns her background. Her marriage certificate confirms her as the daughter of one Thomas Horton, and various publications tell us that her mother, Barbara, who appears in the 1841 census with her. Neither of her daughters, Priscilla and Kate, had taken to the stage, but the Horton family had produced several other vocalists.