Early Life
Neilson was the daughter of a strolling actress, named Brown, and was born, out of wedlock, at 35 St Peters Square Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In childhood she was known as Elizabeth Anne Bland, her mother having subsequently married a mechanic and house decorator named Samuel Bland. Her childhood was passed in the town of Guiseley (near Leeds), where she worked in a factory and as a nursery maid.
When she became well known as an actress it was said that she was the child of a Spanish father and an English mother; born at Zaragoza, reared in affluence; educated in France and Italy; taught seven languages; and had embarked on a theatrical career, because of impoverished fortune combined with irrepressible genius. Such stories were completely untrue.
Read more about this topic: Adelaide Neilson
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