Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Rousby, William Wybert
ROUSBY, WILLIAM WYBERT (1835–1907), actor and theatrical manager, born at Hull on 14 March 1835, was son of a London commercial man. He made his first appearance on the stage as a 'boy-prodigy,' at the Queen's Theatre, Hull, as Romeo, on 16 July 1849, under the management of Mr. Caple, who took a great interest in him and gave him a thorough theatrical training. Before he was sixteen Rousby appeared at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool in such characters as Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and Shylock. After an engagement at Norwich he joined Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and there, as Malcolm in 'Macbeth,' made his first appearance on the London stage on 27 Aug. 1853. He at once achieved success, and while with Phelps he played Lucius in 'Virginius,' Laertes in 'Hamlet,' Master Waller in 'The Love Chase,' Lysander in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' and the Dauphin in 'Henry V.' At the royal command performance at Windsor Castle on 10 Nov. 1853 he played the duke of Bedford in 'Henry V.'
Rousby was still under nineteen when he proceeded to the Theatre Royal, Jersey, to play leading parts there. He afterwards starred in the provinces, where he was likened to Edmund Kean. In 1860 he commenced a series of dramatic recitals, and he also impersonated at the principal provincial theatres leading characters in Richard III,' 'The Man in the Iron Mask,' ’The Lady of Lyons,' 'Still Waters Run Deep,' and 'Hamlet.'
At the Theatre Royal, Manchester, in Sept. 1862, he played Harry Kavanagh in Falconer's ' Peep o' Day,' and in 1864, at the same theatre, at the Shakespearean tercentenary anniversary festival, he played Romeo in ' Romeo and Juliet' with Henry Irving as Mercutio, Charles Calvert as Friar Laurence, and Mrs. Charles Calvert as Juliet.
In 1868 he married Clara Marion Jessie Dowse [see Rousby, Clara Marion Jessie]. On the introduction of William Powell Frith, R.A. [q. v. Suppl. II]], who had seen them act in Jersey, Tom Taylor [q. v.], the dramatist, engaged them for the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre. They appeared on 20 Dec. 1869 as Bertuccio and KordeUsa in 'The Fool's Revenge,' Taylor's adaptation of Hugo's 'Le Rois' amuse.' Rousby's performance was well received, despite a tendency to over-elaboration. On 22 Jan. 1870 he played Courtenay, earl of Devon, in Tom Taylor's' 'Twixt Axe and Crown,' in which his wife achieved a popular triumph. In February 1871 he played Orlando to his wife's Rosalind, and on 18 April 1871 Etienne de Vignolles in Taylor's 'Joan of Arc' At Drury Lane, under Falconer and F. B. Chatterton's management, he acted King Lear to his wife's Cordelia (29 March 1873). At the Princess's Theatre, under Chatterton's management, he was Cosmo in Miss Braddon's 'Griselda' (13 Nov. 1873) and John Knox in W. G. Wills's ' Mary Queen of Scots' (23 Feb. 1874). After the death of his wife in 1879 Rousby became proprietor and manager of the Theatre Royal, Jersey, 'where he reappeared from time to time in his old parts in such plays as 'Jane Shore,' 'Trapped,' and 'Ingomar.' He was also manager of St. Julian's Hall, Guernsey, and to the end of his life gave dramatic recitals in the island, Finally retiring from the stage in 1898, he died at Guernsey on 10 Sept. 1907, and was buried at the Mont-à-l'Abbé cemetery, Jersey. His second wife, Alice Emma Maud Morris, whom he married on 5 July 1880, survived him without issue. An oil portrait painted by Richard Goldie Crawford in 1896 belongs to the widow. In his prime Rousby was a conscientious actor, with a good voice and a mastery of correct emphasis, but he gave an impression of stiffness and self-consciousness, which grew on him and prevented him from rising high in his profession.
[The Era, 1853–4; 14 Sept. 1907; Guernsey Gossip, 18 Sept. 1907; Pascoe's Dramatic List, 1879 ; Scott and Howard's Blanchard, 1891; see art. Rottsby, Clara Marion Jessie.]