Bradshaw, Mary

1780

Mary Bradshaw was probably the wife of the Drury Lane box-keeper William Bradshaw. She first appeared on the stage at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre on 7 January 1743 as Nell in “The Devil to Pay” and a few weeks later acted Lucy in “The Beggar’s Opera”. In the season 1743-44 she joined the company at Drury Lane, where she was to remain, for the most part, for 37 years, playing first a line of young ladies and then older woman. Her first role at Drury Lane was Kitty Pry in “The Lying Valet” on 17 September 1743. Among other roles were Phillis in “The Concious Lovers”, Miss Prue in “Love for Love” and Emilia in “Othello”. She acted Dorcas in Garrick’s romance “Cymon” at the premiere on 2 January 1767 (G0089). She appears with Garrick in a painting by Zoffany of a scene from “The Farmer’s Return from London”, an interlude which was first acted at Drury Lane on 10 March 1762; that painting was once owned by the Garrick Club but is now in the collection of Viscount Lambton. Toward the end of her career, she had great difficulty making ends meet. In the summer of 1780 Mrs Bradshaw, now poverty-stricken, was acting at Plymouth, where her daughter Elizabeth appeared and was hissed off the stage. Mrs Bradshaw apparently fell into a raging fit, turned mad and died in early August. (BDA)