Mary Jane Richards

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Mary Jane "Polly" Richards, around 1880

Mary Jane "Polly" Richards (born 1843 ; died November 1904 in Bradford ), née Blair , was a British stage actress and the mother of the writer Edgar Wallace .

biography

Little is known about the biography of Mary Jane Richards. She was born Marie Jane Blair and was nicknamed "Polly". She married a sailor who has been narrated as Captain Richards and became pregnant by him before he went back to sea and never returned. From this relationship, their daughter Josephine Richards emerged.

Mary Jane joined the theater group around actress Alice Marriott in Liverpool, where she herself worked as an actress. During this employment she had an affair with Marriott's son Richard Horatio Marriott Edgar and became pregnant by him. She kept silent about the affair and the pregnancy and gave birth to her son alone with the help of a midwife in Asburnham Grove in Greenwich. There she had him for baptism as the son of "Walter Wallace", who probably did not exist, register as Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace.

Immediately after the birth, through the mediation of the midwife and against payment, the son was taken in by the London fishmonger George Freeman and his wife against payment and given the name Richard Horatio Edgar Freeman, abbreviated to Dick Freeman. Mary Jane went back to the theater company.

When Mary Jane fell ill in old age, she came to Edgar Wallace in 1904 and asked him for financial support. He refused this on the grounds that she did not take care of him after he was born. She died shortly afterwards in the Bradford poorhouse.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d "Richards, Marie." In: Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004; P. 531. ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
  2. ^ A b "The Roots" from Margaret Lane : Edgar Wallace - The life of a phenomenon. London 1938; German translation by Wilm Wolfgang Elwenspoek, Krüger, Hamburg 1966; Excerpts in: Edgar Wallace Almanach. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1982; Pp. 23-37. ISBN 3-442-00083-1 .

literature

  • Margaret Lane : Edgar Wallace: the biography of a phenomenon , 1938
    • Edgar Wallace: The life of a phenomenon (translation by Wilm Wolfgang Elwenspoek), Krüger, Hamburg 1966
  • Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Richards, Mary Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richards, Polly; Blair, Mary Jane (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British stage actress
DATE OF BIRTH 1843
DATE OF DEATH November 1904
Place of death Bradford