Foote, Samuel, a celebrated English actor and playwright, born at Truro, Cornwall, of a good family; was educated at Oxford, and studied law, but ruined himself by gaming, and took to the stage; he became the successful lessee of Haymarket Theatre in 1747, where, by his inimitable powers of mimicry and clever comedies, he firmly established himself in popular favour (1720‒1777).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Foot-Pound * Forbes, Archibald