as a team, williams and pray would find the greatest successes of their careers beginning [1854] with long runs at san francisco’s metropolitan theatre. they also performed in sacramento, marysville, stockton, grass valley, and nevada. the couple set sail for london on june 7, 1855, where they performed at the adelphi theatre in london. the latter engagement led to a four-year tour of europe performing in plays such as "rory o'more" among others. williams often played irish characters to pray's yankee in performances that on four occasions were attended by queen victoria. from 1856 to 1857 the williamses performed at the adelphi. according to the "london times" they performed the following: "bobbing around", "polly", "won’t you try me, oh?", and "my own mary anne". some of their more popular performances were "ireland as it is", "barney the baron" and "our gal". on july 24, 1856, barney and maria performed for the royal family, and again in february 1857. while in the u.k., the couple toured dublin, cork, belfast, limerick, edinburgh, glasgow, liverpool, manchester and birmingham.