1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/O'Neill, Eliza

O’NEILL, ELIZA (1791–1872), Irish actress, was the daughter of an actor and stage manager. Her first appearance on the stage was made at the Crow Street theatre in 1811 as the Widow Cheerly in The Soldier’s Daughter, and after several years in Ireland she came to London and made an immediate success as Juliet at Covent Garden in 1814. For five years she was the favourite of the town in comedy as well as tragedy, but in the latter she particularly excelled, being frequently compared, not to her disadvantage, with Mrs Siddons. In 1819 she married William Wrixon Becher, an Irish M.P. who was created a baronet in 1831. She never returned to the stage, and died on the 29th of October 1872.