Anna Ross

Anna Ross was born in 1773 to the actor William Ross (died 1781) and his wife Elizabeth Mills,[1] later Mrs John Brown (died 1823). She had an elder sister, Frances Mary Ross (later Fanny Robertson), and a younger half-brother, American John Mills Brown, both actors. She married the actor-manager John Brunton (1775–1849) on 6 September 1792, and they had at least four children. Two of their daughters were actors; the eldest was Elizabeth Yates.[2] One son joined the British Navy.[1] John's sister Louisa Brunton, an actress,[2] married Major-General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven.[3]

Ross wrote the comic opera The Cottagers when she was fifteen.[4] It was published in 1788[5] and was performed at the Theatre Bury, as a benefit performance for Ross, on 24 October 1788 with a cast that included Ross, her mother and stepfather,[6] and at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 19 May 1789, starring her mother.[1][7] The piece was never again performed on stage in Britain, but it has been anthologized and praised in studies of 18th-century dramatic writing.[4][8][9]

Ross began acting in the 1780s with her mother and stepfather, J. Brown (died 1818); she acted in London at Covent Garden Theatre as Sylvia in Cymon in 1788 alongside her stepfather, who on that date also performed an "Occasional Epiloque" written by Ross, but she performed mostly in the British provinces.[1] In 1792, in Edinburgh, she played Amaranth in John O'Keeffe's Wild Oats.[1] After her 1792 marriage, she performed as Mrs Brunton, including a season with the company managed by her brother-in-law, Thomas Shaftoe Robertson, in Lincoln in 1802, including in The Padlock as Leonora and The Cabinet as Floretta.[10] The same year, she played Margaretta in No Song, No Supper at the Robertson and Franklin company's Peterborough theatre.[11] She performed extensively in Norwich during her career.[1]

She appeared at the Georgian Wisbech theatre (now the Angles Theatre), Wisbech, as Rosabelle in Foundling of the Forest from 27 April 1810 until her benefit night on 25 May (her credit states: "Her first appearance these 3 years"), followed by Garrick's The Jubilee on each date, as 1st country girl.[12] At Wisbech, 10 years later, Ross appeared on 2 and 14 May 1820 as Miss Nancy in Killing No Murder, on 11 May 1820 as Rosabelle in Foundling of the Forest, played together with Bluebeard, in which she played Fatima, on 15 May she was Agnes in The Mountaineers, and on 16 May 1820 she appeared in Pizarro; or, The Conquror of Peru, together with the Browns, and also played Maria in Of Age Tomorrow on the same bill.[12]

The Wisbech theatre was managed by her brother-in-law, Thomas Shaftoe Robertson, and later by her sister Fanny.[13][14]

• Neil R. Wright (2016). Treading the Boards. Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology.