Mary Ann Yates

Portrait of Mary Ann Yates in The Orphan of China, circa 1765, by Tilly Kettle.
Mary Ann Yates as Medea (by Richard Glover), mezzotint by William Dickinson, 1771

Mary Ann Yates (1728–1787) was an English tragic actress. The daughter of William Graham, a ship's steward and his wife, Mary, she married Richard Yates (c. 1706-1796), a well-known comedian of the time.[1]

In 1754, aged 25, she appeared at Drury Lane as Marcia in Samuel Crisp's Virginia. David Garrick played the part of Virginius. Yates was gradually entrusted with all the leading parts and succeeded the then famous actress Mrs Cibber as the leading tragedienne of the English stage. She was in turn succeeded and eclipsed by the famous Sarah Siddons.[1]

Memorial in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Richmond

There were benefit performances for Yates in 1797 at The Haymarket which included an appearance by Harriett Litchfield.[2]

  1. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Yates, Mary Ann" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 908.
  2. ^ K. A. Crouch, ‘Litchfield , Harriett (1777–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 1 Feb 2015