William Henry Oxberry

[1] He made his first professional appearance at the Olympic Theatre on the occasion of the benefit of his stepfather William Leman Rede, in March 1825, as Sam Swipes, John Liston's part in Exchange no Robbery.

In 1842 he was again at the Lyceum, appearing principally in burlesque, and winning a reputation as a comic dancer, but taking occasional parts in farce, such as Victim in John Oxenford's My Fellow Clerk.

In June he was a ridiculous old schoolmaster in John Poole's drama The Swedish Ferryman, and in September was, with Edward Richard Wright and Paul Bedford, at the Strand playing in Bombastes Furioso and The Three Graces.

[1] Returning to the Princess's, he played with the Keeleys and Walter Lacy in William Thomas Moncrieff's farce Borrowing a Husband, and in 1844 was Wamba in the opera The Maid of Judah, a version of Ivanhoe.

In a will, printed in The Era for 21 March 1852, and written four days before he died, Oxberry left such property as he possessed to Charles Melville, a tragic actor better known in the country than in London, in trust for his children.

He expressed many wishes concerning his funeral which were not observed; asked that his heart might be preserved in some medical museum as a specimen of a broken one, hoped that a benefit might be given him to pay his debts, which were moderate; and left messages of farewell to many well known actors.

[1] Other plays assigned to him are: The Three Clerks, The Conscript, The Female Volunteer, The Ourang Outang, The Truand Chief, The First of September, The Idiot of Heidelberg, The Lion King, The Scapegrace of Paris, and very many burlesques.