WEAVER, THOMAS (1773–1855), geologist, born in 1773, studied geology and mineralogy from 1790 to 1794 under Abraham Werner at Freiberg. Soon after his return to England he was entrusted by government with the investigation of the gold deposits in Wicklow, in reference to which he published in 1819 his ‘Memoir on the Geological Relations of the East of Ireland’ (London, 4to). In the early days of the Geological Society he became one of its active members, and published in the second series of its ‘Transactions’ (vols. i. and iv.) memoirs on the geology of Gloucestershire and Somerset and the south of Ireland. In the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society for 1825 he asserted the relatively modern age of the fossil remains of the great Irish deer (Cervus megaceros), and in the following year he was elected a fellow of the society. He subsequently travelled as a mining geologist in Mexico and the United States, and in 1831 began a series of papers on the carboniferous rocks of America. Weaver had retired from his profession for some years before his death, which took place at his home in Pimlico, 2 July 1855.
In the Royal Society's catalogue (vi. 285–6) he is credited with twenty papers, bearing dates between 1820 and 1841, all of which are geological, and eight refer to Ireland. They were contributed chiefly to Thomson's ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ and the ‘Transactions and Proceedings of the Geological Society.’
[Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xii. pp. xxxviii–ix; Michaud's Biographie Universelle, vol. xliv.]
WEBB. [See also Webbe.]
WEBB, Mrs. (d. 1793), actress, whose maiden name was Child, was born in Norwich. She became an actress and a singer in the Norwich company, and married first a Mr. Day, and afterwards a Mr. Webb. She appears to have made her first appearance in Edinburgh on 21 Nov. 1772 at the Theatre Royal in Shakespeare Square as Charlotte Rusport in the ‘West Indian,’ springing at once into favour. She—if the Mrs. Day were she—also played Queen Catherine in ‘Henry VIII.’ Webb was about this time a member of the company, acting the King in ‘Hamlet,’ Kent in ‘Lear,’ and similar parts. On 29 Nov. 1773 Portia in the ‘Merchant of Venice’ was played by Mrs. Webb, from which time Mrs. Day disappears. In the ‘Edinburgh Rosciad,’ 1775, Mrs. Webb is described as ‘very useful,’ and it is said of her that she ‘sings very sweet.’ On 1 June 1778, as Mrs. Webb from Edinburgh, she appeared at the Haymarket, playing Mrs. Cross in Colman's ‘Man and Wife.’ During her first season she acted Lady Sycamore in the ‘Maid of the Mill,’ and Lady Wronghead in the ‘Provoked Husband.’ On 1 July 1779 she was the first Lady Juniper in ‘Summer Amusement, or an Adventure at Margate,’ by Andrews and Miles. She played Mrs. Sneak in Foote's ‘Mayor of Garratt,’ Mrs. Margaret Maxwell in the ‘Devil on Two Sticks,’ and had an original part on 31 Aug. in Colman's unprinted ‘Separate Maintenance.’ As the original Dame Hearty in Goodenough's ‘William and Nanny’ she made on 12 Nov. her first appearance at Covent Garden, where she played Mrs. Peachum in the ‘Beggar's Opera,’ Statira in ‘Rival Queens; or the Life and Death of Alexander the Little.’ She was at the Haymarket on 30 May 1780 the Lady in the Balcony at the first production of Colman's ‘Manager in Distress,’ was Mrs. Honeycombe in ‘Polly Honeycombe,’ and the first Commode in Andrews's ‘Fire and Water’ on 8 July. At Covent Garden she was on 3 Oct. Glumdalca in an alteration of Fielding's ‘Tom Thumb,’ the first Mrs. Highflight in Pilon's ‘Humours of an Election’ on 19 Oct., the Duenna, Mother-in-law in the ‘Chances,’ Queen in ‘Hamlet,’ Emilia in ‘Othello,’ Elvira (an original part) in Dibdin's ‘Islander,’ 25 Nov., Lady Rusport in ‘West Indian,’ and Mrs. Hardcastle. Her principal original characters at this house, which she never quitted, were Lady Tacit in O'Keeffe's ‘Positive Man,’ 16 March 1782; Lady Dangle in Cumberland's ‘Walloons,’ 20 April; Abigail in Cumberland's ‘Capricious Lady,’ 17 Jan. 1783; Widow Grampus in Pilon's ‘Aerostation,’ 29 Oct. 1784; Lady Bull in O'Keeffe's ‘Fontainebleau,’ 16 Nov.; Marcellina in ‘Follies of a Day’ (‘Le Mariage de Figaro’), 14 Dec.; Honour in Macnally's ‘Fashionable Levities,’ 2 April 1785; Lady Mary Magpie in Mrs. Inchbald's ‘Appearance is against Them,’ 22 Oct.; Mabel Flourish in O'Keeffe's ‘Love in a Camp,’ 17 Feb. 1786; Lady Oldstock in Pilon's ‘He would be a Soldier,’ 18 Nov.; Lady Dolphin in O'Keeffe's ‘Man Milliner,’ 27 Jan. 1787; Cecily in Mrs. Inchbald's ‘Midnight Hour,’ 22 May; Katty Kavanagh in O'Keeffe's ‘Toy,’ 3 Feb. 1789; Lady Waitfor't in Reynolds's ‘Dramatist,’ 15 May; Miss Di Clackit in Bate Dudley's ‘Woodman,’ 26 Feb. 1791; Lady Acid in Reynolds's ‘Notoriety,’ 5 Nov.; and Miss Spinster in Mrs. Inchbald's ‘Every One has his Fault,’ 29 Jan. 1793.
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