[War Office Records; Despatches; Blackwood's Mag. vol. cxvi.; Stedman's Hist. of the American War, 2 vols. 4to, 1794; Correspondence of Charles, first Marquis Cornwallis, ed. Ross, 3 vols. 1859; The Narrative of Lieutenant-general Sir Henry Clinton, relative to his Conduct during part of his Command of the King's Troops in North America, London, 1785; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Allibone's Dict.; Appleton's Cyclopædia; Liverpool as it was during the last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century, by Richard Brooke, Liverpool, 1853; Tarleton's Hist. of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces of North America, 1787; Colonel Roderick Mackenzie's Strictures on Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton's Hist., London, 1787; Martial Biography, or Memoirs of the most eminent British Characters who have distinguished themselves under the English Standard by their splendid Achievements in the Field of Mars, London, 1804, with a print of Tarleton by Blackberd; The Life and Career of Major John André, by Winthrop Sargent, 8vo, Boston, 1861; Cust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii.; Lecky's Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv.; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, vol. ii.; Leslie's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xii., 8th ser. i.; Royal Military Cal. vol. i. 1820; Gore's Liverpool Advertiser, 21 Feb. 1782; United Service Journal, 1833; Ann. Register, 1833; Gent. Mag. 1833 pt. i. p. 273, 1843 pt. ii. p. 378.]
TARLTON, RICHARD (d. 1588), actor, was born, according to Fuller, at Condover in Shropshire. His father afterwards resided at Ilford in Essex. His mother, whose name was Katharine, survived her son. A sister, named Sara, married Abraham Rogers of London, son of Robert Rogers (d. 1595), archdeacon of Chester (Harl. MS. 2040, f. 179). His education was limited; according to the author of ‘Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie,’ ‘he was only superficially seen in learning, having no more but a bare insight into the Latin Tongue.’ Fuller relates that Richard in his youth was employed at Condover keeping his father's swine. While thus engaged he was one day accosted by a servant of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, whom he so pleased with ‘his happy unhappy answers that he brought him to court, where he became the most famous jester to Queen Elizabeth’ (Worthies of England, 1811, ii. 311). It is stated, however, in Robert Wilson's ‘Pleasant and Stately morall of the three Lordes and three Ladies of London,’ 1584, that Tarlton was a water-bearer in early life, and was afterwards apprenticed in the city of London. There is much contemporary testimony to the effect that at one period he followed the calling of an innkeeper. According to the author of ‘Tarltons Jests,’ he and his wife Kate at one time kept a tavern in Gracechurch Street, and at another an ordinary in Paternoster Row, the site of which has been identified with that of Dolly's Chophouse (Gent. Mag. 1780, p. 325). In William Percy's play of ‘Cuck-queanes and Cuckolds Errants’ he is represented as ‘quondam controller and induperator’ of an inn at Colchester.
Tarlton owed his fame to his conspicuous ability as a comic actor, but the date of his formal assumption of the histrionic profession is not known. It may be best referred to his middle age. By 1570 he had made some popular reputation in London—doubtless as an actor and an occasional singer of ballads in dramatic performances. In 1570 his name was affixed as that of author to the ballad entitled ‘A very lamentable and wofull discours of the fierce fluds whiche lately flowed in Bedfordshire, in Lincolnshire, and in many other places, with the great losses of sheep and other cattel, the 5 of October, 1570’ (imprinted at London by John Allde, 1570). It is unlikely that Tarlton was author of the ballad. His name was probably attached to it for the purpose of recommending it to the public, who were beginning to manifest interest in him. The ballad was reprinted for the Percy Society in 1840 under Collier's supervision.
Tarlton's name does not figure in the first known patent granted to players, which was bestowed on the Earl of Leicester's servants in 1574, but he was soon afterwards recognised as an experienced player. He played the part of Derrick the clown in the old pre-Shakespearean play of ‘Henry V.’ Early in 1583, on the institution of the queen's players, he was one of the twelve who were chosen to form that company. ‘They were sworn the queenes servants, and were allowed wages and liveries as groomes of the chamber’ (Stow, Annals, 1615, p. 697). He remained one of the queen's actor-servants until his death (cf. Bohun, Character of Queen Elizabeth, 1693, pp. 352–3).
During the last five years of his life Tarlton's popularity on the stage as a clownish comedian was enormous. ‘Richard Tarleton,’ says Stow, ‘for a wondrous plentifull pleasant extemporall wit, hee was the wonder of his time,’ and Nash declares that ‘the people began exceedingly to laugh when Tarlton first peept out his head’ (Pierce Penniles his Supplication to the Devil, 1592). He was credited with the power of diverting Elizabeth when her mood was least amiable, and it was believed that her ‘highest favorites’ frequently sought his countenance
