• Name: Bannister, John
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 12  May  1760
• Death Date: 7  November  1836
• Occupation: actor

John Bannister was a comic actor who appeared in George Colman’s adaptation of The Iron Chest, which was loosely based on Godwin’s novel, Caleb Williams. According to John Adophus’s Memoirs of John Bannister, the failure of The Iron Chest caused a ‘scene of great curiosity, and, in the dramatic world, great importance’ (p. 367). Godwin appears to have had some social contact with the actor, including a dinner at Aickin’s in 1789 where the guests included Holcroft and Baddeley (Bannister was to play the character Hairbrain in Holcroft’s piece The Man of Ten Thousand). Holcroft's Life mentions him affectionately.

He also dined at the Milton Gallery in 1800 with an illustrious group of guests including Fuseli, Opie, Northcote, West, Lawrence, W. Turner, and Bannister, who had studied for a stint at the Royal Academy along with the caricaturist Rowlandson before pursuing a career in theatre (DNB). In 1800, Godwin called on Kemble at the Drury Lane Theatre, with an adv. meeting, indicated in brackets, with J. Bannister. The identification is confirmed by Godwin's noting 'Bannister 70/71' in 1831 which corresponds with John's age.

• DNB
• The life of Thomas Holcroft, continued by William Hazlitt, ed. by Elbridge Colby, 2 vols (London: Constable and Co., 1925)
• John Adophus, Memoirs of John Bannister (London, 1839)

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.