4PAR@ ` ¼TEXT ` ₧Merry, Ann Brunton1769╨1808actorBorn in London on May 30, 1769, Ann Brunton grew up there and in Norwich, where her father, a former grocer and tea dealer who had turned to the stage in 1774, later managed the Theatre Royal. Under his management she made her stage debut in Bath in The Grecian Daughter in February 1785. Subsequent highly successful performances there and in Bristol led to her London debut in The Roman Father at Covent Garden in October 1785. Over the next seven years she delighted Covent Garden audiences in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, The Orphan, The Distressed Mother, Jane Shore, Much Ado About Nothing, The Conscious Lovers, Lorenzo, and Road to Ruin. In August 1791 she married Robert Merry, the high-living leader of the Delia Cruscan group of extremely minor poets. The next year she retired from the stage, but by 1796 Robert Merry╒s extravagance made it necessary for her to accept an offer from a Philadelphia theater manager. They arrived in the United States in October 1796, and in December Ann Merry made her American debut in Romeo and Juliet at Philadelphia╒s Chestnut Street Theatre. She made her New York debut in August 1797, when she appeared in Venice Preserved at the Greenwich Street Theatre. She continued to appear with the Chestnut Street company, which traveled on occasion to New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, for the rest of her life. The simple grace, gentleness, and lovely voice that had won much attention in London made her the unchallenged reigning tragic actress on the American stage. Her husband died in 1798, and in January 1803 she married the manager of the company, Thomas Wignell. On his death a few weeks later she took up management of the company with his partner, Alexander Reinagle. She was married a third time in August 1806 to a fellow actor, William Warren. She died during a Southern tour, in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 28, 1808. fstyl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ $ !I !I 3 !I í !I ▒ !I & !I 6 !I 8 !I B !I D !I Y !I [ !I e !I g !I } !I !I ô !I ò !I £ !I ó !I « !I ═ 5¬ ╬ !I 6 !I F !I ┤ !I ─ !I link `
