Lucretia Bradshaw


Lucretia Bradshaw was an English actress.
In Thomas Betterton's 1741 A History of the English Stage, it is stated that:
She declared herself to have learned from Elizabeth Barry: "to make herself Mistress of her Part and leave the Figure and Action to Nature".
In 1714 she married Martin Folkes, an English antiquary, numismatist, mathematician, and astronomer, who " off the Stage, for her exemplary and prudent Conduct". The wedding took place on 18 September 1714 at St Helen's church, London. Their marriage is described by Betterton in the words: "And such has been her Behaviour to him, that there is not a more happy Couple." They had three children: Dorothy, Martin, and Lucretia.
In March 1753 the family went on a tour of Germany and Italy, and in Rome she reportedly "grew religiously mad". On her return to London in 1735 she was confined to a lunatic asylum in Chelsea, and died there in 1755. Her husband, on his death in 1754, had left her an annuity of £400 for life.
Betterton's book devotes a chapter to "Some account of Mrs Guyn, Mrs Porter, Mrs Bradshaw", being Nell Gwyn, Mary Porter, and Lucretia Bradshaw.