In 1774 he sold his share in the great playhouse, which had involved him in much litigation with his partners, to Leake; and three years later he purchased of Samuel Foote, then broken in health and spirits, the little theatre in the Haymarket.
Mexborough was a friend and patron of the playwright and actor-manager Samuel Foote; it was while on a visit to Mexborough in 1766 that Foote lost a leg in a riding accident.
Shortly after, his son died, and John announced his intention of leaving the property to one of the sons of his sister Eleanor, the mother of Samuel Foote the comedian.
The text for the book, well known during Caldecott's time, was written and published in 1775 by Samuel Foote.
Samuel Beckett | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Samuel Johnson | Samuel Pepys | Samuel L. Jackson | Samuel R. Delany | Samuel Barber | Samuel Goldwyn | Samuel | Samuel Alito | Samuel Butler | Samuel Ramey | Samuel Morse | Samuel Gompers | Samuel de Champlain | Samuel Sewall | Samuel Richardson | Samuel Hill | Samuel Fuller | Samuel Purchas | Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood | Samuel Foote | Samuel Butler (novelist) | Samuel Sánchez | Samuel Rogers | Samuel Rivera | Samuel Pierpont Langley | Samuel J. Tilden | Samuel Gridley Howe | Samuel Franklin Cody |
The Oxford English Dictionary lists examples of usage from 1709 (Richard Steele in the Tatler), 1771 (Samuel Foote in Maid of Bath), 1821 (Maria Edgeworth in a letter), 1831 (Walter Scott in his journal), 1929 (I. Colvin in his Life of Dyer), and 1992 (Jeff Torrington in Swing Hammer Swing!), the last likely used humorously.
Also see Panjandrum for a later use of this Samuel Foote invented word, probably influenced by its popularised pre-War usage in the 'Japhet and Happy' strips.