14 Facts About Fanny Robertson

Fanny Robertson, born Frances Mary Ross, was an actress and later the manager of the provincial theatres of the Lincoln Circuit.

Fanny Robertson performed at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, in the 1770s, 1780s and 1790s, often with her sister and other family members.

Over 30 years later Fanny Robertson brought his son, Henry Betty, to perform at her Spalding theatre in October 1839.

Fanny Robertson performed opposite Edmund Kean as Portia and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in Lincoln in 1824, where he played the title characters in Richard III, Othello and Hamlet.

Fanny Robertson returned to appear in The Merchant of Venice in Boston and Wisbech in April 1831.

Fanny Robertson performed as Ophelia opposite William Macready in Hamlet in September 1828 in Lincoln and again in June 1836 in Wisbech and Peterborough to open a five-week season.

Fanny Robertson inherited the Lincoln Circuit, when widowed in 1831, and announced that her nephew William Roberson would conduct the acting management and that his wife Margaretta would make her first appearance as a singer in Lincoln on 28 September.

Fanny Robertson shortened her company's seasons at the Lincoln Circuit theatres and added short stops for fairs and race weeks; she wrote and produced the plays The Nun at Lincoln in November 1833, and Louis XIII in December 1836.

On 27 June 1840 James Hill and Thomas Hill went bankrupt and their estates were sold by auction, including the Wisbech theatre, which Fanny Robertson was then leasing.

Mrs Robertson had her farewell benefit, having resigned the management to her nephew, Mr W Robertson.

Fanny Robertson 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.

Fanny Robertson retired to Wisbech that year, and her nephew William Fanny Robertson became the manager of the family's theatres and theatre company.

Fanny Robertson made an agreement to sell Huntingdon theatre to James Balfour in 1845.

Fanny Robertson died in 1855 in Wisbech, attended by her friend, the amateur playwright and medical doctor John Whitsted.