Born: 1771 (circa), Ireland (assumed)
Died: 3 August 1854
Country most active: United Kingdom, Ireland
Also known as: Elizabeth Rebecca Richards
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Edwin (Richards), Elizabeth Rebecca (1771?–1854), actress and singer, was the daughter of William Talbot Richards and his wife Sarah, who acted in English, Scottish and Irish provincial theatres, and at Crow Street in Dublin. Records are unclear on her date and place of birth. Trained by her parents from an early age, she first took on juvenile roles and played Prince Arthur. She was listed as working in Belfast’s New Theatre in Ann Street during the 1778–9 season, playing in the title role of ‘The romp’ and as Cupid in ‘Cymon’ for her benefit night on 24 March 1779. She is thought to have made her Crow Street debut in 1780. After a lull in her career, which may have been because of poor health, she returned to acting full time and, in the years that followed, performed alternately at Covent Garden, where she appeared in 1789 in ‘The citizen’, by Arthur Murphy, the Haymarket and Drury Lane, and throughout the English provinces. She married fellow actor John Edwin in 1791.
Edwin returned to Dublin on several occasions. She is known to have been recruited by Lord Westmeath and Frederick Jones for their private theatre in Fishamble Street, at some point between 1792 and 1794 and then again in 1804, when her husband died. Though his death was possibly the result of excessive drinking, she attributed it to the distress caused by an anonymous and savage attack by John Wilson Croker in Familiar epistle (1804). Croker went on to attack her in Histrionic epistle (1807). Remaining in Dublin, she had a benefit night at Crow Street on 5 May 1808, where she was again working in 1815. A popular comedienne, her favoured roles included Beatrice in ‘Much ado about nothing’, Miss Prue in ‘Love for love’, the title role in ‘Ella Rosenberg’, and Lady Teazle in ‘The school for ` scandal’. She was the original Lady Traffic in ‘Riches, or The wife and brother’, the adaptation by Sir James Bland Burges. Her efforts to retire early came to nothing after her stockbroker absconded to America with £8,000 of her savings. She spent her last years in her lodgings in Chelsea, where she died in obscurity on 3 August 1854. Portraits of her as Albinia Mandeville and Lady Traffic (by Samuel De Wilde) are in the Garrick Club.