Ann Brunton Merry
Ann Brunton Merry (30 March 1769 – 28 June 1808) was an English actress popular in the United Kingdom and later America. Life Ann (or Anne) Brunton was born 30 May 1769 in Covent Garden, England, one of 14 children of John Brunton (b. 1741), an actor and manager of the Theatre Royal, Norwich. In February 1785, she first appeared at the Theatre-Royal, Bath as Euphrasia in The Grecian Daughter, which was followed by other leading parts, and on 17 October of the same year she made her debut at Covent Garden theatre in London as Horatia in The Roman Father. Here she attained great distinction, and by many was rated second only to Sarah Siddons. An illustration of her in the role of Horatia appeared in the July 1787 edition of Walker's Hibernian magazine. In 1791 Brunton married Robert Merry, a poet and playwright known by his pen-name "Della Crusca". He had run through his patrimony, but at that time still figured in fashionable circles. She at once retired from the theatre, and went with her husband to Paris. They returned in 1792 and her husband's comic opera The Magician no Conjuror at Covent Garden was not a success.