The elder son of Joseph and Isabella Ebsworth, he was born at Islington, London, on 10 October 1788, and was early apprenticed to a watch-jeweller named Cornwall; he was later selected to reconstruct the watch of the Prince Regent.
[1] Having a rich baritone voice, he joined the operatic company at Covent Garden Theatre immediately after fulfilling his indentures, and early turned to dramatic authorship.
Soon after 1826 he moved from London to Edinburgh, where he held an engagement at the Theatre Royal, as actor and prompter, with his lifelong friend William Henry Murray.
[1] Ebsworth became established in Edinburgh as teacher of music and singing, and accepted the position of leader of the choir at St. Stephen's Church, which caused him to give up acting; but he continued to write and to translate dramas, which played in London and the provinces.
In 1828 he opened an "English and foreign dramatic library and caricature repository" at 23 Elm Row, at the head of Leith Walk, Edinburgh, and for fifteen years maintained it successfully as the main bookseller's shop for periodical literature.
[1] Ebsworth's vocal and instrumental concerts at the Hopetoun Rooms, Queen Street, were continued annually from 1830 until within a few weeks of his death.