Belville Robert Pepper

Belville Robert Pepper (1850 – 1888) was a bass-baritone known for creating the role of the Usher in the first production of Trial by Jury in 1875 at the Royalty Theatre in London.

[5][6] Following his father's death in 1854, Pepper was sent as a boarder or "inmate" in the St Marylebone Parochial Schools.

[1][8] At the same time Pepper was playing the small roles of the Usher and the Second Notary in Offenbach's La Perichole, which was the main attraction that Trial by Jury was supporting at the Royalty, and he also played the Porter in The Secret, a farce on the same bill during the run.

[1] On 11 September 1877 Pepper married dancer Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson (born 1856) at St. John's church in Manchester.

[2] In 1881 Pepper and his wife, by then an actress, were appearing in Newcastle upon Tyne,[9] and in 1882 he sang the role of Vanderprout in a touring production of Offenbach's Geneviève de Brabant.