{{Short description|Actress and singer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|Julia Matthews '''Julia Matthews''' or '''Julia Mathews''' (14 December 1842 – 19 May 1876)<ref>[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A130912?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy Works By]. austlit.edu.au</ref> was an English actress and singer who was popular on the stage, particularly in Melbourne.
==Life== Matthews was born in London in 1842.<ref>[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A130912?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy Works By]. austlit.edu.au</ref> Her parents were Sarah (born Irviner) and James Mathews. Her father was a sailor who also made artificial flowers. The family moved to Sydney where she made her debut on the stage of the Royal Victoria Theatre.<ref name=aadrb>{{Citation |last=Gittins |first=Jean |title=Julia Mathews (1842–1876) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mathews-julia-4171 |access-date=2024-08-04 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>
She received and refused a marriage proposal from Robert O'Hara Burke in 1860, shortly before the Burke and Wills expedition. Burke had made her his sole heir.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Julia Matthews, c. 1862 |url=http://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2010.167/julia-matthews/ |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=National Portrait Gallery collection}}</ref> She was one of the first to call for a search party.<ref name=aadrb/> Matthews died aged just 33, in St. Louis, Missouri.<ref>[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A130912?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy Works By]. austlit.edu.au</ref>
She was played by Greta Scacchi in ''Burke & Wills'' (1985) and by Nicole Kidman in ''Wills & Burke'' (1985).
It has been claimed that the film actress Jessie Matthews (1907–1981) was a descendant.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160504683 |title=A Survey & Some Opinions |newspaper=The Sydney Mail |volume=L |issue=1302 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 March 1937 |accessdate=20 August 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.portrait.gov.au/site/collection_info.php?searchtype=basic&searchstring=&irn=1777 Portrait] at National Portrait Gallery
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Julia}} Category:1842 births Category:1876 deaths Category:19th-century Australian actresses Category:19th-century English actresses Category:English stage actresses Category:Australian stage actresses Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia Category:British emigrants to the Colony of Victoria