Marriott Edgar - Family Background

Family Background

Edgar's parents were Jennifer née Taylor, a native of Dundee, and Richard Horatio Marriott Edgar (1847–1894), only son of Alice Marriott (1824–1900), proprietress of the Marriott family theatre troupe. Richard was born in Manchester, Lancashire, near Christmas 1847 as Richard Horatio Marriott; both his two sisters, Adeline Marriott (b.1853) and Grace Marriott (b.1858) were also born in Lancashire. Later all three children chose to take the surname of their mother's husband, Robert Edgar, whom she married in 1856.

Richard and Jenny married in March 1875, with Richard being unaware that he had fathered an illegitimate namesake son, Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace, with widowed actress Mrs Mary Jane "Polly" Richards, after a brief sexual encounter. Polly had invented an obligation in London to hide her pregnancy and give birth in secret on 1 April 1875, almost a month after Richard and Jenny married. This son became the famous journalist, novelist, playwright and screenplay writer Edgar Wallace.

Richard and Jenny Taylor's children were Alice Marriott Edgar (b.1876, London), twins Richard and Jennifer Marriott Edgar (b.1878, London), following which they relocated to Scotland, where George was born, then they returned to Southern England and London once more, having Joseph Marriott Edgar in 1884 and Adeline Alice Edgar in 1886, both in London.