GARRICK, DAVID
Arms.—Per pale, or and az., in the dexter compartment a tower gu., and in the sinister, on a mount vert, a sea-horse arg., mane, fins, and tail of the first; on a chief or, 3 mullets of the second.
Crest.—A mullet or.
[Etherege. The Comical Revenge. London, 1690.]
David Garrick (born 19th February 1716, died 20th January 1779) was the son of an officer in the army, and of Huguenot descent from the family of La Garrique of Bordeaux. Garrick took to the stage at an early age, and after having unsuccessfully tried other means of making a livelihood he eventually took to acting as a profession. He acted as an amateur at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, and he wrote several plays. His family did not approve of his becoming an actor, but his rapid success ultimately reconciled them to it. His life-history is one of unvarying triumphs, which, however, naturally made him many enemies; he left the stage practically in 1762.
Garrick was a collector of treasures of all sorts, but particularly copies of Early English plays, of which he made a very large and valuable collection. These he bequeathed to the British Museum. He left a large fortune, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
