[1] Writer and politician Horace Walpole described her as one of the finest actors of their time, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan was said to have written the part of Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal for her to perform.

It was also rumoured that she recited Shakespeare in taverns at the age of 12, along with being a prostitute for a short period to help her family with financial problems.

[5] She subsequently had affairs with an Irish MP, Needham, who left her a considerable estate, and William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne.

[2] She remained at the Drury Lane for 18 years, being the first to play more than 30 important characters, notably Lady Teazle (1777) in The School for Scandal.

In April 1772, when James Northcote saw her as Miss Notable in Cibber's The Lady's Last Stake, he remarked to his brother I never saw a part done so excellent in all my life, for in her acting she has all the simplicity of nature and not the least tincture of the theatrical.

[3] Her performance as Kitty in "High Life Below Stairs" put her in the foremost rank of comic actresses and made the mob cap she wore in the role fashionable.