As Mrs. Pritchard she acted in 1733, at Fielding and Hippisley's booth, Bartholomew Fair, the part of Loveit in an opera called A Cure for Covetousness, or the Cheats of Scapin.

A duet between her and an actor called Salway was very popular, and she was berhymed by a writer in the Daily Post, who spoke of this as her first essay, and predicted for her "a transportation to a brighter stage".

During her first season she was seen as Dorcas in the Mock Doctor, Phillis (the country lass) in The Livery Rake Trapp'd, or the Disappointed Country Lass, Ophelia, Edging in The Careless Husband, Cleora in the Opera of Operas, or Tom Thumb the Great, an alteration of Fielding's Tragedy of Tragedies, Lappet in The Miser, Phædra in Amphitryon, Hob's Mother in Flora, Sylvia in The Double Gallant, Shepherdess in the Festival, Peasant Woman in the Burgomaster Trick'd, and Belina in Miller's Mother-in-Law.

At Drury Lane she remained until 1740–1, going in the summer of 1735 to the Haymarket, where she was Beatrice in The Anatomist, Lady Townly, and the original Combrush in the Honest Yorkshireman.

On 1 Jan. 1742, as Arabella in The London Cuckolds of Ravenscroft, she first appeared at Covent Garden, where she played, among other parts, Sylvia in The Recruiting Officer, Paulina in The Winter's Tale, Nottingham in Essex, Queen in Hamlet, Elvira in the Spanish Fryar, Mrs.

Her only 'creations' were Constance in Colley Cibber's Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John, 15 Feb. 1745; Tag in David Garrick's Miss in her Teens, 17 Jan. 1747; and Clarinda in Hoadley's The Suspicious Husband, 12 Feb.

[1] When in 1747–8 Garrick became patentee of Drury Lane, Mrs. Pritchard accompanied him thither, reappearing on 23 Nov. 1747 as Lady Lurewell in The Constant Couple.

On 24 Feb. 1750 she was the original Horatia in Whitehead's Roman Father, adapted from Les Horaces of Pierre Corneille, on 2 Feb. 1751 the first Aurora in Moore's Gil Blas, on 17 Feb. 1752 the first Orphisa in Francis's Eugenia, and 7 Feb. 1753 the first Mrs. Beverley in the Gamester, perhaps her greatest part.

For her benefit on 15 March 1766 she had an original part in Charles Shadwell's Irish Hospitality, and on 12 April was the first Dame Ursula in William Kenrick's Falstaff's Wedding.

During the season of 1767–8 she gave a series of farewell performances, her last appearance taking place on 24 April 1768 as Lady Macbeth, when she spoke an epilogue by David Garrick.

[1] Mrs. Pritchard, whose fortune appears to have been imperilled, if not impaired, by the action of her brother, Henry Vaughan, who was an actor, led a wholly blameless and reputable life; a portion of her considerable estate was left her by a distant relative, a Mr. Leonard, an attorney of Lyons Inn.

Dibdin says that Cibber's remark "that the life of beauty is too short to form a complete actress" proved so true in relation to Mrs. Pritchard that she was seen to fresh admiration till in advanced age she retired with a fortune.

She was held the greatest Lady Macbeth of her day (until Sarah Siddons took over the role and redefined Shakespearean theatre), her scene with the ghost being especially admired.

Horace Walpole, who knew and admired her, praises her Maria in the Nonjuror, and her Beatrice, which he preferred to Miss Farren's, and would not allow his Mysterious Mother to be played after her retirement from the stage, as she alone could have presented the Countess.

In private life he declared she was "a vulgar idiot; she would talk of her gownd, but when she appeared upon the stage seemed to be inspired by gentility and understanding".

Campbell, who could not have seen her, says in his Life of Siddons, unjustly, that something of her Bartholomew Fair origin may be traced in her professional characteristics, declares that she "never rose to the finest grade, even of comedy, but was most famous in scolds and viragos"; adds that in tragedy, though she "had a large imposing manner" (in fact, like her daughter, she was small), "she wanted grace", and says that Garrick told Tate Wilkinson that she was "apt to blubber her sorrows".