Webb, Richard (Mrs)

1793

This actress played under her maiden name, Miss Child, at Norwich in March 1764 and by 1765 was married to an actor named Day. Together they toured numerous provincial towns. They may have acted at Dublin in 1770-71. As Mrs Day she was at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, in 1772-73. What happened to Mr Day is not known, but by May of 1774 she assumed the name of Mrs Webb, though it is not clear whether or not she ever married the actor Richard Webb. She appeared regularly in major roles in Edinburgh through 1779, and she and Webb joined Colman at the Haymarket Theatre in London in the summer of 1778. When she made her debut there on 12 June 1778 as Mrs Cross in “Man and Wife”, one critic alluded to her obesity, finding her ‘first rate in point of bodily size, and second rate as to theatrical merit.’ But she did have some talent for tragedy – in the parts of Queens in Shakespeare – and possessed a ‘most powerful and harmonious voice.’ With Richard Webb she joined the Covent Garden company in the autumn of 1779. Among her numerous roles in London – which were of greater significance than those of her partner, but not as major as those she had enjoyed in Edinburgh – were Lady Oldcastle in “Separate Maintenance”, Mrs Cheshire in “The Agreeable Surprise” and the Landlady in “William and Susan”. Most of her assignments were in light comedies, musical comedies and interludes. She first appeared as Lady Dove in “The Brothers” (the role in which she was depicted by De Wilde, G0834) at Covent Garden on 25 April 1787. Mrs Webb’s large girth can be seen in De Wilde’s picture and in other pictures of her, including a caricature of her as Cowslip. Her husband died in debtor’s prison in July 1784. Mrs Webb, who resided in the Covent Garden area (Bedford Street from 1779 to 1782, Broad Court, Bow Street, in 1787, and No 19, Catherine Street, the Strand, in 1791), died of a stroke on 24 November 1793 and was buried at St Paul, Covent Garden. (BDA)