‘A theatrical meteor,’ Francis Nesbitt McCron (c.1807-1853) and his travels from the Old World to the Australian colonies and the San Francisco goldfields

“A theatrical meteor, shooting about between the colonies,” so was Francis Nesbitt McCron described. Nesbitt rose from being a stock actor in England and Ireland to becoming the leading tragedian of Australian colonial theatre in the 1840s. His wanderings commenced in 1843, taking him to Launceston, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide. In 1849 they led him to the Californian goldfields and back again. Though his successes were many his flaws plagued him. In 1853 Nesbitt, the “great tragedian,” died suddenly in Geelong in tragic circumstances. Nesbitt’s career shows the up and downs that actors faced as touring players in an emergent global theatrical circuit, and the rather controversial position of the theatre in mid-nineteenth Australian society. Janette Pelosi is a professional archivist, historian and a director of the Society of Australian Genealogists. She has worked at State Records NSW for over 20 years where she became interested in colonial theatre history.