OXBERRY

William Henry (son of Wm. Oxberry, actor 1784–1824). b. Brown low st. Blooms bury, London 21 April 1808; educ. Merchant Taylors’ school; with an artist; with an attorney; apprenticed to Septimus Wray, surgeon, Fleet st. to 1824; first appeared on the stage at the Olympic 17 March 1825 as Sam Swipes in The high road to marriage; served under Leigh Hunt in connection with The Examiner; played in the provinces 1826–32; acted at the Strand 1832, and at the Italian opera, Paris 1833; played four years at the English opera house 1833–7 where he was manager, then le ee in 1842 and lost everything; played the hero of A lost letter at Prince ’s Jany. 1843; played in Bombastes Furioso at Strand Sept. 1843, and Wamba in The maid of Judah at Prince ’s 1844; the original Mrs. Caudle in Mr. and Mrs. Caudle at Prince ’s July 1845; managed the Windsor theatre for a time; edited Oxberry’s Weekly budget of plays, No. 1 20 March 1843, No. 78 30 Nov. 1844; Oxberry’s Budget of plays, 39 original dramas 1844; and Oxberry’s Dramatic chronology 1850; he wrote The actre of all work, a sketch produced at the Surrey theatre; Matteo Falcone or the brigand and his son, English opera house June 1836; Delusion or is she mad, a drama, Queen’s theatre 4 Feb. 1836; The Pacha’s pet, a farce, Victoria theatre Sept. 1838; The Idiot boy or the castle of Heidelberg, Victoria March 1839; Norma traves tie, a burletta, Adelphi theatre 6 Dec. 1841; with J. Gann Mr. Midshipman Easy, a drama, Surrey theatre March 1837; with Madame Laurent The Truand chief, a melodrama, Victoria 9 Oct. 1837; m. (1) 11 Dec. 1834 Ellen M. Lancaster; m. (2) 11 Jany. 1844 Louise Blanche, dau. of a master shipwright in Portsmouth dockyard, she was b. Portsmouth 28 April 1826, and was a dancer at the Lyceum and Strand theatres and in the provinces. d. on 28 February 1852. bur. Kensal Green cemet. 5 March. Dramatic and musical review 1842 p. 102 et seq. ; Theatrical times 20 Feb. 1847 pp. 49–50 portrait, and iv 25–6 (1849) portrait of his second wife ; Actors by gaslight (1838) 129–30 portrait ; I.L.N. xx 194 (1852).