Anna Maria Bennett

Anna Maria Bennett (ca. 1750[1] – 12 February 1808) was a Welsh novelist who wrote in English. Some sources give her name as Agnes Maria Bennett. She had two children, and she taught her daughter to act. She became a noted stage actor.

Anna Maria Bennett
Bornc.1760
Merthyr Tydfil
Died12 February 1808
Brighton
NationalityKingdom of Great Britain
Occupationwriter
Spouse(s)Thomas Bennett
Partner(s)Admiral Thomas Pye
Children2

Her best-known work is the epistolary novel Agnes de-Courci (1789).

Family

Anna was probably born in Merthyr Tydfil[2] Glamorganshire, Wales, the daughter of David Evans, described variously as a customs officer or grocer. She was briefly married to customs officer Thomas Bennett, but while sheltering in a chandler's shop after moving to London, she met Vice-Admiral Thomas Pye.[3] She became his housekeeper and mistress in Tooting, Surrey.[4]

She minc'd his meat, & made his bed
And warm'd it too, sometimes, 'tis said.'[3]

The couple had at least two illegitimate children together, Thomas Pye Bennett and Harriet Pye Bennett. The latter became a famous actress as Harriet Pye Esten, with her mother helping to launch her career.[4]

When Admiral Pye died he left his Suffulk Street townhouse to Bennett and the families joined more confusingly when their son Thomas Pye Bennett married the Admiral's daughter Mary.[5]

Her daughter, Harriet Pye Esten, initially appeared in Bath and Bristol before moving on to appear in Dublin. Whilst she was there in 1789 she and her mother negotiated a formal separation with James Esten. Bennett paid off her son-in-law's debts in exchange for his agreement.[6]

Works
  • Anna: or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress, 1785
  • Juvenile Indiscretions, 1786
  • Agnes de-Courci: a Domestic Tale, 1789
  • Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel, 1794
  • The Beggar Girl and he Benefactors, 1797
  • De Valcourt, 1800
  • Vicissitudes Abroad, 1806

Notes
  1. Agnes Maria Bennett, in Laura Dabundo, ed., Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Routledge, 1992).
  2. "Bennett, Anna Maria (Agnes) Evans". Blackwell Reference Online. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  3. Charles Lee Lewes (1805). Memoirs: Containing Anecdotes, Historical and Biographical, of the English and Scottish Stages, During a Period of Forty Years. 4. R. Phillips. pp. 200–205.
  4. "'Bennett, Anna Maria (d. 1808)', rev. Rebecca Mills". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2117. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Laura Dabundo (15 October 2009). Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Routledge Revivals): Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s. Routledge. pp. 86–88. ISBN 978-1-135-23234-4.
  6. "Esten [née Bennett; other married name Scott-Waring], Harriet Pye (1761?–1865), actress | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39766. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

References
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