Vernon, Joseph (c. 1739–1782)

English actor, tenor, and composer. He was a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral in London where he first appeared on the stage as a boy soprano in 1751, and as a tenor in 1754. Later he became famous chiefly as a singing actor in Shakespeare and in Sheridan's La Duenna and School for Scandal, where Linley's song was written for him.

Works pantomime The Witches; songs for Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night, and for Garrick's The Irish Widow and Linco's Travels (1767); ballads.