Colley Cibber
Actor-manager, Poet Laureate & dramatist
1671 - 1757
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Although an enemy of Alexander Pope from 1717 he was later the hero of the New Dunciad published in 1742. He was made Poet Laureate in 1730 in preference to Lewis Theobald, Matthew Concannen and Stephen Duck and Pope wrote to David Mallet saying that he was "sorry, not surprised".
At Strawberry Hill
He was a tenant, around 1715, of the cottage built by Lord Bradford's coachman, known as Chopp'd Straw Hall, and later converted by Horace Walpole to make Strawberry Hill. This was before Pope came to Twickenham.
Family
In 1756 his son Theophilus (1703-1758) by his first marriage re-opened the theatre on Hill Rise, Richmond as a warehouse for cephalic snuff, in which the public were allowed in, free of charge to witness theatrical rehearsals. This was a device for circumventing the licensing laws.
Theophilus married Susannah, one of Handel's favourite singers and sister of Thomas Arne (1710-1786).
Further reading:
Dictionary of National Biography
B R S Fone (ed), An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, 1968
Richard H Barker, Mr Cibber of Drury Lane, 1939