Background
Ann Brunton Merry was the daughter of John Brunton, a tea-dealer of London, and his wife, formerly a Miss Friend.
Ann Brunton Merry was the daughter of John Brunton, a tea-dealer of London, and his wife, formerly a Miss Friend.
In 1774, Ann father turned to the stage and after a few years joined the company at Bath and Bristol. Ann was educated by her mother's instruction and her father's Shakesperian readings, but no effort was made to direct her ambition toward the theatre. When, however, her father discovered that she had memorized several tragic rôles, he resolved to bring her before the public, and within a week she made her début at Bath, February 17, 1785. She at once captured the town. Thomas Harris, manager of Covent Garden, engaged her for the coming season, and London bestowed on her its high favor until her retirement in 1792 after her marriage in August 1791. In a few years Merry's extravagant living had so diminished his fortune that when Thomas Wignell, the Philadelphia director, made Mrs. Merry an offer in 1796, she readily accepted it and on December 5 faced her first American audience as Juliet. Philadelphia remained the scene of her major efforts, though she occasionally played in other towns, especially New York, where she was a tremendous favorite. When the company started its summer tour in 1808, Mrs. Warren, though pregnant, accompanied her husband, contrary to her physician's advice.
Despite her low stature and her lack of positive beauty, she made an irresistible appeal through gentleness, simplicity, and grace. Her character was as distinguished as her art. Her associates abundantly testified to the charm and beauty of her personality, and to the scrupulous honor of all her professional dealings. She was adored by her inferiors in the theatre and was on terms of social equality with some of the first families of Philadelphia.
Quotes from others about the person
As late as 1832, William Dunlap described Ann Brunton as one "who will long be entitled to the character of the most perfect actor America has seen".
John Bernard, the English comedian, found her less majestic than Mrs. Siddons but said: "Ann Brunton is equally perfect, and equally gifted to enrapture an audience. With a voice that was all music, and a face all emotion, her pathos and tenderness were never exceeded".
After her death her husband wrote in his diary "she has not left a better woman behind".
In August 1791, Ann Brunton married Robert Merry, the Della-Cruscan poet. On January 1, 1803, having been a widow for four years, she married Wignell, but his death followed seven weeks later. The theatre was now conducted by Mrs. Wignell and her late husband's partner, Alexander Reinagle, until, on August 15, 1806, she married William Warren, a prominent comedian, to whom she committed the management of her affairs. At Alexandria, Virginia, she gave birth to a still-born son and died four days later. One child, the daughter of Wignell, survived her.
