​HORTON, CHRISTIANA (c. 1696–c. 1756), English actress, first appeared in London as Melinda in The Recruiting Officer in 1714 at Drury Lane. Here she remained twenty years, followed by fifteen at Covent Garden. At both houses during this long career she played all the leading tragedy and comedy parts, and Barton Booth (who “discovered” her) said she was the best successor of Mrs. Oldfield. She was the original Mariana in Fielding’s Miser (1733).