Sylvester Hay's birth is considered to be on 4 March 1777. Her paternal grandfather had been the vicar of
Malden, but her father, John Sylvester Hay, was a ship's surgeon serving onboard the
third-rate ship of the line
HMS Nassau. He was also the head surgeon at the Royal Hospital in
Calcutta and he may have managed a theatre. He died in his thirties leaving his daughter who was then nine. Hay appeared first as an actress in Richmond where she was encouraged by
Dorothea Jordan. She reputedly received a letter from
Robbie Burns inviting her back to Scotland after she went there in 1793. The following year she became Mrs Litchfield. Her new husband was a civil servant who had written a few prologues and epilogues. After a brief gap she returned to acting in 1796 and she appeared in a benefit performance for
Mary Ann Yates in 1797 at
The Haymarket. On 22 March 1802, she appeared in a one woman show at
The Haymarket called
The Captive by
"Monk" Lewis. This gothic monodrama recounts the story of a wife imprisoned by her husband. The stage directions included shrieks, clanking and screaming. Litchfield was complimented for her delivery "in the most perfect manner" as she plays a woman denied any human contact and kept in a modern dungeon. She is not mad but realizes that she will soon be a maniac. The play is thought to have been suggested by one of
Mary Wollstonecraft's books. It was said that even the staff of the theatre left in horror. The play was only staged once. Litchfield died in 1854, most likely in London, after a long marriage and six children. ==Legacy==