Introduction
Fanny Robertson (1768-1855), previously Frances Mary Ross was a leading actress on the Lincolnshire Circuit stage.
Early Life
A younger sister Anna Ross (1773-1849) married John Brunton (1741-1819) of Covent Garden theatre. Fanny married Thomas Shaftoe Robertson (1765-1831) aka 'The Mogul' in Spalding, Lincolnshire in September 1793.
Career
Tom Robertson and 'Jemmy' Miller ran the Lincoln Circuit until May 1796 when Miller sold out to Robertson.
Fanny inherited the Lincoln Circuit when widowed in 1831. In the same year her brother-in-law James Robertson (actor) died. 'Death. On the 1st inst. at Nottingham, aged 60, Mr. James Robertson, late joint manager with Mr. Manly of the Nottingham, Derby, and Stamford company of comedians, father of Mr. W. Robertson, of the Lincoln company'. was reported in the Stamford Mercury on 14 January 1831. Her nephew William Shaftoe Robertson (1796-1872) is also described as a manager long before Fanny's eventual retirement to Wisbech, Isle of Ely in 1843.
'The Theatre.— On Monday evening our theatrical friends took leave of us. Mrs. Robertson had her farewell benefit, having resigned the management to her nephew, Mr. W.Robertson. She appeared in the character of Lady Eleanor Irwin, in Elizabeth Inchbald's comedy "Everyone has his Fault" after which she delivered a very neat and appropriate address. There was a full house, but we are sorry to say the season has been productive of very few even tolerable houses' reported the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal on 1st April 1843.
In May, 1847 Mr Davenport manager of several Norfolk theatres took a season at the Wisbech theatre and held a benefit night for Fanny Robertson.She died on 15 December 1855.
Legacy
A son of one of the company's painters, William Hilton RA (1786-1839), was encouraged by Fanny to pursue a career as an artist, he rose to become a Royal Academician and later painted Fanny in the role of "Beatrice", in 1866 the painting was in the Wisbech Working Men's Institute.
The Wisbech Georgian theatre reopened in the 1970s as the Angles Theatre.