7 - The making of history: JohnWeaver and the Enlightenment

Summary

Weaver's life

Weaver was born on 21 July 1673 at Shrewsbury in the county of Shropshire, where his father (also called John) was a dancing master. The family moved to Oxford shortly after John junior's birth. It is probable that he was sent back to Shrewsbury at about the age of ten to attend the eponymous school. He followed in his father's footsteps as a dancing master in the town until 1700 when he moved to London to work as a dancer in the theatres of the capital. Two years later he staged The Tavern Bilkers at Drury Lane Theatre, claiming later that it was “the first Entertainment that appeared on the English Stage, where the Representation and Story was carried on by Dancing, Action and Motion only”. He also worked closely with Queen Anne's dancing master, known simply as Mr Isaac, in notating the dances devised by the latter for court occasions. He enjoyed a mutually supportive relationship with the other major metropolitan dancing master of the period, Thomas Caverley. Important for his career as a writer was his friendship with Sir Richard Steele the Irish-born journalist and playwright who with Joseph Addison edited The Spectator (1711–14). Steele commissioned several articles on dancing for his periodical from Weaver, gave helpful publicity to his history of dancing (1712) and may also have had a hand in getting the book published in the first place. In 1707 Weaver had returned to Shrewsbury, where his wife Catherine, whom he had married in 1696, died in childbirth in 1712.