Mary Wells

Mary Wells, afterwards Mrs. Sumbel (16 December 1762 – 23 January 1829), was an English actress and memoirist. Early life She was the daughter of Thomas Davies, a carver and gilder who was born there on 16 December 1762 in Birmingham. Her father died whilst being held in a madhouse. Her widowed mother kept a tavern whose customers included the actor Richard Yates. Yates arranged for Mary to appear in a breeches role as the young Duke of York in Richard III at the Birmingham Theatre. She went to appear as Cupid in William Whitehead's Trip to Scotland, and as Arthur in King John. In Gloucester, she played Juliet and married the Mr Wells who played Romeo at Chad's Church in Shrewsbury. The marriage did not last long and she was abandoned. On the London stage On 1 June 1781, as Madge in Isaac Bickerstaffe'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 she also 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.