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Thomas James Serle (1798-1889)

BC MS NCC/9/2/43 Edward Petre Novello self portrait studies
The Novello Cowden Clarke Collection represents the activities of an extraordinary Anglo-Italian family of artists, musicians, writers, publishers and actors during the long nineteenth century.
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BC MS NCC/1/3/1 Portrait of Giuseppe 'Joseph' Novello
Giuseppe ‘Joseph’ Novello was an Italian confectioner and pastry cook who moved to London in 1771.
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BC MS NCC/9/4/1 Proof engraving of Vincent Novello
Vincent Novello was a musician, composer and music publisher.
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LEEUAT050 Ritratto del Sig 'Cowden Clarke' (Portrait of Charles Cowden Clarke)
Charles Cowden Clarke was an writer, lecturer and Shakespeare scholar alongside his wife, Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke (née Novello).
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BC MS NCC/3/5/2 Watercolour portrait of Mary Sabilla Novello
Mary Sabilla Novello (née Hehl) was married to Vincent Novello and supported their education and careers of their children. She wrote an important diary of their travels across Europe in the summer of 1829.
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BC MS NCC/19/11/43 Carte de visite of Thomas James Serle
Thomas James Serle was an actor, dramatist and journalist, who married Cecilia Novello.
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BC MS NCC/4/8/3 Engraved portrait of Mary Cowden Clarke
Mary Victora Cowden Clarke (née Novello) was a writer and Shakespeare scholar alongside her husband, Charles Cowden Clarke.
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BC MS NCC/7/8/2 Carte de visite of (Joseph) Alfred Novello
(Joseph) Alfred Novello was a music publisher and first son of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/9/7/7 Miniature portrait of Cecilia Serle (née Novello)
Cecilia Serle (née Novello) was the second daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/9/1/55 Watercolour sketch of a self-portrait by Edward Petre Novello
Edward Petre Novello was an artist and the second son of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/10/4/1 untitled oil sketch [portrait of Emma Aloysia Novello by Henry Sass]
Emma Aloysia Novello was an artist and third daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/11/2/1 Photograph of Giovanni Battista Gigliucci and Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello)
Conte Giovanni Battista Gigliucci was an Italian politician born to an aristocratic family in Fermo.
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BC MS NCC/12/7/2 Proof print of Clara Anastasia Novello engraved by William Humphreys
Clara Anastasia Novello was an internationally-recognised soprano and the fourth daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/13/9/15 Pencil and watercolour portrait of (Mary) Sabilla Novello
Mary Sabilla Novello, known as Sabilla to distinguish her from her mother, was the youngest surviving daughter of Vincent Novello and Mary Sabilla Novello.
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BC MS NCC/15/2/1 Photographic reproduction of a portrait of Giovanni Gigliucci
Conte Giovanni Gigliucci was the first son of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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BC MS NCC/16/2/2 Carte de visite of Porzia Gigliucci as 'Thalia'
Contessa Porzia Gigliucci was born in 1845, the eldest daughter and second child of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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Emma Clara Serle was the eldest surviving daughter of Cecilia Serle (née Novello) and Thomas James Serle.
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BC MS NCC/17/1/1 Photographic reproduction of a portrait of Mario Gigliucci
Conte Mario Gigliucci was the second son and third child of Clara Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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BC MS NCC/18/2/2 Carte de visite of Valeria Gigliucci as 'Mirth'
Contessa Valeria Gigliucci was born in 1849, the fourth and youngest child of Clara Anastasia Gigliucci (née Novello) and Giovanni Battista Gigliucci.
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Thomas James Serle was a dramatist, actor and journalist. He was born in London on 28 October 1798. He intended to practice law but began to write plays as a teenager. He started to work as an actor at the age of 18, performing in Shakespearean plays across the country and touring to France and Belgium. He founded the Dramatic Authors Society in the early 1830s and continued to write and perform in London during the this time. He gave lectures on Shakespeare in Manchester, Liverpool and London.

He married Cecilia Novello on 3 September 1836 at St Anne’s Church, Soho, and they had three daughters, two surviving of whom survived: and Emma Clara Serle. Emma was baptised alongside her sister Lydia Mary at the English Protestant Church in Dinan, France, on 1 May 1857. He withdrew from the theatre in the early 1850s. He wrote for the Weekly Dispatch under the name ‘Caustic’ and acted as its editor in the 1870s. He died at Novello Cottage in Worthing on 18 March 1889.