Elizabeth Billington was born on December 27, 1765, in London, United Kingdom to a musical family. Her mother was a singer who studied with Johann Christian Bach, her father was an oboist and clarinet player, her brother played the violin, and Elizabeth played the piano as a child.
Elizabeth Billington received her earliest musical instruction, in company with her brother Charles (who afterwards was known as a violinist) from her father, under whom she studied the pianoforte with such assiduity that on 10 March 1774 she played at a concert at the Haymarket for her mother's benefit. In addition to her father's instruction she studied under Johann Samuel Schroeter, and before she was twelve years old published two sets of pianoforte sonatas. She now began to turn ner attention to the cultivation of her voice, and at the early age of fourteen appeared at a public concert in Oxford.
On 13 October 1783 Elizabeth was married under her mother's maiden name, Wierman, to James Billington, a double-bass player in the Drury Lane orchestra, from whom she had had lessons in singing. Immediately after their marriage the Billingtons went to Dublin, where she made her first appearance on the stage in the part of Eurydice. After singing at Waterford and other towns in Ireland she returned to London in 1786, and was offered an engagement at Covent Garden for three nights only, but she insisted on being engaged for twelve nights, at a salary of £12 a week.
Quotes from others about the person
Her brother-in-law, Thomas Billington, said that she had originally 'a very indifferent voice and manner'.
Miss Seward writes of her: 'She has too much sense to gambol like Mara in the sacred songs'.
