Mary Wells (actress)
Encyclopedia
Mary Wells, afterwards Mrs. Sumbel (fl.
1781–1812), was an English actress.
, and was born there about 1759. Her father died in a madhouse while she was a small child. Her mother kept a tavern frequented by actors, and among others by Richard Yates, under whose management Mary appeared at the Birmingham Theatre as the young Duke of York
in Richard III, playing subsequently Cupid in William Whitehead
's Trip to Scotland, and Arthur in King John. After visiting Bath and York she went to Gloucester, where she played Juliet to the Romeo of an actor named Wells, to whom she was married in St. Chad's Church, Shrewsbury. Wells shortly afterwards deserted her.
's Love in a Village and Mrs. Cadwallader in Samuel Foote
's Author, she made her first appearance at the Haymarket. John Genest
says that she was excellent in both characters. Jenny in Lionel and Clarissa (Bickerstaffe) followed, and on 3 September in John O'Keeffe's Agreeable Surprise she was the first Cowslip, a name that stuck to her (though she is occasionally spoken of as ‘Becky’ Wells). Genest wrote that nothing could be superior to her acting as Cowslip and that of John Edwin as Lingo.
On 25 September, as Nancy in Love in a Camp
, she made her first appearance at Drury Lane, where also she played on 29 October. Jenny in the Gentle Shepherd, adapted from Allan Ramsay
by Richard Tickell
. Harriet in the Jealous Wife, Widow O'Grady in the Irish Widow, Flora in She Would and She Would Not (Colley Cibber
), and Jacintha in the Suspicious Husband followed. At the Haymarket in 1782 her name appears to Molly in the English Merchant and Bridget in the Chapter of Accidents (Sophia Lee
). She also, as she says, replaced Mrs. Cargill
, who had eloped, as Macheath in the Beggar's Opera, with the male characters played by women and vice versa. She made a distinguished success, and was received with great enthusiasm. She played at Drury Lane Kitty Pry in The Lying Valet
, and Jane Shore on 30 April 1783, her first appearance in tragedy. At the Haymarket she was on 6 July 1784 the original Fanny in Elizabeth Inchbald
's Mogul's Tale, on 6 September the first Maud in O'Keeffe's Peeping Tom, the eponymous Isabella, and Lady Randolph in Douglas
.
Nancy Buttercup, an original part in O'Keeffe's Beggar on Horseback, was seen at the Haymarket on 16 June 1785. On 14 December she made her first appearance at Covent Garden as Jane Shore (in her own opinion, her best performance), playing also Laura in Edward Topham's farce The Fool, which her acting commended to the public. After repeating Lady Randolph and Isabella, she was on 5 January 1786 Imogen in Cymbeline
; William Woodfall
in the Morning Chronicle
awarded her praise for the performance. Andromache in the Distressed Mother (Ambrose Philips
) followed, and was succeeded by Shakespearean heroines (Rosalind, Portia), and Fidelia in the Plain Dealer
; and she was on 24 April the first Eugenia in The Bird in a Cage, or Money works Wonders, altered from James Shirley
. At the Haymarket in 1786 she played some unimportant original parts. When John Palmer
made in 1787 his trial effort at the Royalty Theatre, Wellclose Square
, she gave her imitations of Mrs. Siddons and other actresses, and was paid £50 a night.
She came back to Covent Garden, where she was on 17 September 1787 Mrs. Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor and played Lady Percy, Lady in Comus
, Rosina, Anne Lovely, and Fatima in Cymon
. Here she remained some time, acting in the summer at Cheltenham
, Brighton
, and Weymouth
, where she was favoured by royalty.
and in other places.
In the Fleet she met Joseph Sumbel, her second husband, who was confined there for contempt of court
. Sumbel was a Sephardic Jew, secretary to the ambassador from Morocco, and the wedding was performed in the Fleet. A year later he sought unsuccessfully to have the marriage annulled or dissolved, declaring that she was not his wife; she meanwhile had embraced Judaism and taken the name of Leah. She subsequently became a Catholic or Methodist.
Her portrait, in the character of Cowslip in the ‘Agreeable Surprise,’ was engraved by John Downman
(Bromley, p. 447). A portrait of her by Dewilde, as Anne Lovely in ‘A Bold Stroke for a Wife,’ is in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club. An engraving by J. R. Smith from his own picture of her as Cowslip was published by Ackerman in 1802.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1781–1812), was an English actress.
Early life
She was the daughter of Thomas Davies, a carver and gilder in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, and was born there about 1759. Her father died in a madhouse while she was a small child. Her mother kept a tavern frequented by actors, and among others by Richard Yates, under whose management Mary appeared at the Birmingham Theatre as the young Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, 1st Duke of Norfolk, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Earl Marshal was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. He was born in Shrewsbury....
in Richard III, playing subsequently Cupid in William Whitehead
William Whitehead
__FORCETOC__William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position.-Life:...
's Trip to Scotland, and Arthur in King John. After visiting Bath and York she went to Gloucester, where she played Juliet to the Romeo of an actor named Wells, to whom she was married in St. Chad's Church, Shrewsbury. Wells shortly afterwards deserted her.
On the London stage
On 1 June 1781, as Madge in Isaac BickerstaffeIsaac Bickerstaffe
Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff was an Irish playwright and Librettist.-Early life:Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls and tennis...
's Love in a Village and Mrs. Cadwallader in Samuel Foote
Samuel Foote
Samuel Foote was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager from Cornwall.-Early life:Born into a well-to-do family, Foote was baptized in Truro, Cornwall on 27 January 1720. His father, John Foote, held several public positions, including mayor of Truro, Member of Parliament representing...
's Author, she made her first appearance at the Haymarket. John Genest
John Genest
-Life:He was the son of John Genest of Dunker's Hill, Devon. He was educated at Westminster School, entered 9 May 1780 as a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. 1784 and M.A. 1787. He took holy orders, and was for many years curate of a Lincolnshire village...
says that she was excellent in both characters. Jenny in Lionel and Clarissa (Bickerstaffe) followed, and on 3 September in John O'Keeffe's Agreeable Surprise she was the first Cowslip, a name that stuck to her (though she is occasionally spoken of as ‘Becky’ Wells). Genest wrote that nothing could be superior to her acting as Cowslip and that of John Edwin as Lingo.
On 25 September, as Nancy in Love in a Camp
Love in a Camp
Love in a Camp is a 1786 British play by John O'Keeffe. It was a sequel to the hit 1783 play The Poor Soldier with the characters now serving in the Prussian army.-Bibliography:...
, she made her first appearance at Drury Lane, where also she played on 29 October. Jenny in the Gentle Shepherd, adapted from Allan Ramsay
Allan Ramsay (poet)
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet , playwright, publisher, librarian and wig-maker.-Life and career:...
by Richard Tickell
Richard Tickell
-Life:He was the second son of the three sons and two daughters of John Tickell and his wife Esther Pierson - this made him a grandson of the poet Thomas Tickell....
. Harriet in the Jealous Wife, Widow O'Grady in the Irish Widow, Flora in She Would and She Would Not (Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
), and Jacintha in the Suspicious Husband followed. At the Haymarket in 1782 her name appears to Molly in the English Merchant and Bridget in the Chapter of Accidents (Sophia Lee
Sophia Lee
Sophia Lee was an English novelist and dramatist.She was the daughter of John Lee , actor and theatrical manager, and was born in London...
). She also, as she says, replaced Mrs. Cargill
Ann Cargill
Ann Cargill was a British opera diva and celebrated beauty whose life and death were a sensation in London at the close of the 18th century.-Life:...
, who had eloped, as Macheath in the Beggar's Opera, with the male characters played by women and vice versa. She made a distinguished success, and was received with great enthusiasm. She played at Drury Lane Kitty Pry in The Lying Valet
The Lying Valet
The Lying Valet is a British play by David Garrick. A farce it was first performed at the Goodman's Fields Theatre on 30 November 1741. Garrick based his work on the second act of All Without Money by Peter Antony Motteux which was in turn inspired by a French play. Garrick initially followed the...
, and Jane Shore on 30 April 1783, her first appearance in tragedy. At the Haymarket she was on 6 July 1784 the original Fanny in Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
's Mogul's Tale, on 6 September the first Maud in O'Keeffe's Peeping Tom, the eponymous Isabella, and Lady Randolph in Douglas
Douglas (play)
Douglas is a blank verse tragedy by John Home. It was first performed in 1756 in EdinburghThe play was a big success in both Scotland and England for decades, attacting many notable actors of the period, such as Edmund Kean who made his debut in it. Peg Woffington played Lady Randolph, a part which...
.
Nancy Buttercup, an original part in O'Keeffe's Beggar on Horseback, was seen at the Haymarket on 16 June 1785. On 14 December she made her first appearance at Covent Garden as Jane Shore (in her own opinion, her best performance), playing also Laura in Edward Topham's farce The Fool, which her acting commended to the public. After repeating Lady Randolph and Isabella, she was on 5 January 1786 Imogen in Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
; William Woodfall
William Woodfall
William Woodfall was an English printer and publisher in the 18th century.William's father, Henry Woodfall, printed and published the Public Advertiser. William served an apprenticeship with him after attending St...
in the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
awarded her praise for the performance. Andromache in the Distressed Mother (Ambrose Philips
Ambrose Philips
-Life:He was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708, and his pastorals were probably written in...
) followed, and was succeeded by Shakespearean heroines (Rosalind, Portia), and Fidelia in the Plain Dealer
The Plain Dealer (play)
The Plain Dealer is a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, first performed on 11 December 1676. The play is based on Molière's Le Misanthrope, and is generally considered Wycherley's finest work along with The Country Wife....
; and she was on 24 April the first Eugenia in The Bird in a Cage, or Money works Wonders, altered from James Shirley
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
. At the Haymarket in 1786 she played some unimportant original parts. When John Palmer
John Palmer (actor)
John Palmer was one of the most highly-regarded actors on the English stage in the eighteenth century.-Birth and youth:He was born in the parish of St Luke's, Old Street, London, about 1742, was son of a private soldier...
made in 1787 his trial effort at the Royalty Theatre, Wellclose Square
Wellclose Square
Wellclose Square lies in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south.The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was called Neptune street. On the north side is Graces Alley, home to...
, she gave her imitations of Mrs. Siddons and other actresses, and was paid £50 a night.
She came back to Covent Garden, where she was on 17 September 1787 Mrs. Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor and played Lady Percy, Lady in Comus
Comus (Arne)
Comus is a masque in three acts by composer Thomas Arne. The work uses an English libretto by John Dalton that is based on John Milton's 1634 masque of the same name. The work premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 4 March 1738.-History:...
, Rosina, Anne Lovely, and Fatima in Cymon
Cymon
Cymon is a five-act opera composed by Michael Arne, with a libretto by David Garrick.Based on the poem Cymon and Iphigenia by John Dryden, Cymon tells the story of a captive prince who falls in love with a shepherdess named Sylvia...
. Here she remained some time, acting in the summer at Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, and Weymouth
Weymouth
Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is south of Dorchester and north of the Isle of Portland. The town's population is 52,950 ....
, where she was favoured by royalty.
Personal troubles
Her domestic affairs became complicated. She had entered into close relations with Edward Topham, a captain in the Guards, who was concerned in a daily newspaper called the World, in the production of which she assisted. She had also backed bills for a considerable amount for her brother-in-law, the husband of a Miss Davies (who appeared at the Haymarket on 28 July 1786 as Amelia in the English Merchant). This guarantee involved her in endless trouble. More than once she was a prisoner in the Fleet PrisonFleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...
and in other places.
In the Fleet she met Joseph Sumbel, her second husband, who was confined there for contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
. Sumbel was a Sephardic Jew, secretary to the ambassador from Morocco, and the wedding was performed in the Fleet. A year later he sought unsuccessfully to have the marriage annulled or dissolved, declaring that she was not his wife; she meanwhile had embraced Judaism and taken the name of Leah. She subsequently became a Catholic or Methodist.
Last years and death
An alcoholic, she does not seem to have acted much later than 1790, though she gave her imitations at private houses; and once attempted to give them publicly during Lent, but was prevented by the bishop of London. O'Keeffe speaks of her as dead in 1826.Works
She published in 1811 ‘Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sumbel, late Wells, of the Theatres Royal Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket, written by herself,’ (London, 3 vols.) The three volumes of this rambling autobiography are occupied principally with details of travels in search of her children, who refused to know her, or of friends. The remainder stock seems to have received a new title-page in 1828, when it appeared as ‘Anecdotes and Correspondence of Celebrated Actors and Actresses, including Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Kemble, Mr. Colman, Mrs. Siddons, &c. Also an Account of the Awful Death of Lord Lyttelton.’Her portrait, in the character of Cowslip in the ‘Agreeable Surprise,’ was engraved by John Downman
John Downman
John Downman was a Welsh portrait and subject painter.-Life and work:Downman is thought to have been born near Ruabon, Denbighshire, the son of Francis Downman, attorney, of St Neots, and Charlotte ; his grandfather, Hugh Downman , had been the master of the House of Ordnance at...
(Bromley, p. 447). A portrait of her by Dewilde, as Anne Lovely in ‘A Bold Stroke for a Wife,’ is in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club. An engraving by J. R. Smith from his own picture of her as Cowslip was published by Ackerman in 1802.