14.10.1795 call on Mansel / 25.10.1795 Mansel at Holcroft's / 6.12.1795 Mansel at Holcroft's / 3.1.1796 EM at Holcroft's / 17.1.1796 EM at Holcroft's / 21.2.1796 EM at Holcroft's / 9.3.1796 call on EM / 28.3.1796 call on Mansel / 11.5.1796 call on Mansel / 22.9.1796 call on Mansel / 6.10.1796 call on Mansel / 4.11.1796 sup at Mansel's with De Camp, Coopers, C Kemble & C Moore / 25.11.1796 call on Mansel / 29.1.1797 Mansel, de Camp & C Moore call / 10.3.1797 call on Mansel / 11.3.1797 call on Mansel / 13.4.1797 call on Mansel / 17.4.1797 / 21.5.1797 Mansel at Horne Tooke's / 3.12.1797 Mansel adv at Holcroft's / 14.12.1797 Mansel at theatre / 17.3.1799 EM at Holcroft's (this last one the day after Elizabeth Mansel married Frederic Reynolds probably meant Elizabeth Mercier who later appeared at her sister Louisa Holcroft's as E Mr on 3.4.1809). Later EM entries may also be Elizabeth Marshall.
The above entries are the ones the GD website has left uncoded, mostly plain Mansel but four examples of EM, (which the GD website has coded to her at Holcroft's on 27.12.1795). Although there were 4 entries of plain Mansel in 1790, they cannot be Elizabeth Mansel and have no continuity with the above Mansel entries, all of which (except the last) are consistent with other E Mansel or miss Mansel entries. Godwin's calls on Mansel typically follow calls on Inchbald, another actress who earned a plain surname without initial, mrs or miss, as independent and creative women frequently did in Godwin's diary, most notably Wollstonecraft (and Inchbald & Mansel probably lived near each other). Tea at E Mansel's with De Camp & C Kemble on 26.9.1796 is followed on 4.11.1796 by sup at Mansel's with De Camp & C Kemble. Her brother the actor Robert Mansel didn't follow in her footsteps till 1798. She was clearly one of the boldest women in Godwin's circle, leaving a genteel home alone to go on the stage..
Her debut as Sophia in Holcroft's Road to Ruin was on 8.10.1795 and Thomas Cooper's London debut as Hamlet was on 19.10.1795. The Morning Post of 10.10.1795: "Miss Maunsel the young lady who made her curtsey in Sophia and the young gentleman who is to perform Hamlet travelled up to town without having known each other, and without previous knowledge of the circumstance, took lodgings in the same house in Bow Street, and presented themselves to the same manager by whom they were approved. This coincidence of circumstances has been productive of a sentimental attachment to each other, which renders the Romantic pair, since they explained their history, inseparable." True romance or brilliant public relations?