Benjamin Wrench

Benjamin Wrench (1778–1843), was an actor, born in 1778 in London, where his father occupied ‘a lucrative appointment in the Exchequer.’ He seems to have been grandson of Sir Benjamin Wrench, M.D., of Norwich (d. 1747, aged 82) (see Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 48). His father died before he reached his seventh year, and having declined a proffered living and a commission in the army offered by General Tryon, a relative, Wrench adopted the stage as a profession, making his first appearance at Stamford.

Whatever ability he had was slow in ripening, and he had to rehearse for fourteen days the part of Francis in the ‘Stranger’ before he could be allowed to essay it. Mrs. Robinson Taylor, the manager of the Nottingham circuit, whom he married, coached him carefully and brought out such ability as he possessed. He then joined in York the company of Tate Wilkinson, whose praise he obtained, and proceeded to Edinburgh, where with complete success he played Othello, Gossamer, Job Thornberry, and Jeremy Diddler.

When Robert William Elliston in 1804 quit Bath, he was replaced by Wrench, who made his appearance on 5 January 1805 as Gossamer in ‘Laugh when you can,’ and Walter in ‘Children in the Wood.’ In the new Bath house Wrench opened on 26 October 1805 as Percy in the ‘Castle Spectre.’ He played during the season Archer in ‘Beaux' Stratagem,’ Orlando, Belcour in ‘West Indian,’ and Pedro in the ‘Pilgrim.’ He then returned to York, and while there received an offer from Drury Lane, where he appeared, with the company then temporarily occupying the Lyceum, as ‘Wrench from Bath and York,’ playing on 7 October 1809 Belcour in ‘West Indian’ and Tristram Fickle in the ‘Weathercock.’

At Drury Lane Wrench remained until 1815. He left Drury Lane that year, and divided his time between the Lyceum and the country—Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, and other large towns. At the Lyceum he was on 29 Aug. 1818 the first Wing in Peake's ‘Amateurs and Actors,’ the first Jenkins in ‘Gretna Green,’ and the first Sir John Freeman in ‘Free and Easy.’ In 1820, as Captain Somerville in ‘Capers at Canterbury,’ he made his first appearance at the Adelphi, where he made perhaps his greatest success on 26 November 1821 as Corinthian Tom in Moncrieff's ‘Tom and Jerry, or Life in London.’

On 4 October 1826 Wrench appeared for the first time at Covent Garden, enacting Rover in ‘Wild Oats.’ He had made a great success at the Lyceum in ‘He lies like Truth,’ and was at that house when (16 Feb. 1830) it was burnt to the ground. In 1834, in the rebuilt house, Wrench and Keeley made a great hit in Oxenford's ‘I and my Double.’ On 30 Oct. at the Haymarket he was the first Caleb Chizzler in ‘But however’ by Henry Mayhew and Henry Baylis. In 1840 Wrench was at the Olympic. His last engagement was at the Haymarket.

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