Biography

Anne Slack (née Fisher)(1719-1778)

Before she married the Newcastle-upon-Tyne printer Thomas Slack, Anne Fisher had established and managed an evening school in Newcastle’s St. Nicholas’s Church Yard for young working women who wanted to develop their literacy skills. In 1750 she published “A New Grammar and Spelling Book” which established her as Britain’s first female grammarian in English and the book passed through forty editions. These appeared under her professional name, Ann Fisher, and are the fourth most re-printed grammar publications in the eighteenth century.

In the 1760s and 1770s the Slack’s establishment known as the “Print Shop” acted as a meeting point for intellectual and literary figures associated with the town and region. The relationship between Ann Fisher and the Irish actor and poet John Cunningham particularly exemplifies the proximity between print culture and the stage. Their correspondence also provides insights into the working practices of the Slacks’ business showing that Ann was perfectly capable of running operations when her husband was out of town and that she was an important member of the local business community in her own right.

Related Materials

More Biographies

Joseph Ritson (1752-1803)

Joseph Ritson was an antiquarian and historian of "the common people", friend to actors who passed through Stockton, and the man who made Robin Hood the man he is today.

Tate Wilkinson (1739 –1803)

The Yorkshire company under Tate Wilkinson’s management from 1766 to 1806 had the best-known circuit in the North

Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)

Thomas Holcroft was a novelist, playwright and actor in the north of England

Ann Allan (1717-1785)

Ann Allan of Blackwell Grange was a prominent local philanthropist and friend to local personalities.

George Allan (1736-1800)

Antiquary and printer George Allan was an influential cultural figure in the Northeast

Robert Anderson (1770-1833)

Robert Anderson, known as the ‘Bard of Cumberland' was an English labouring class poet who wrote in Cumbrian dialect.

David Erskine Baker (1730-1767)

David Erskine Baker - actor, freemason and social mover

Susanna Blamire (1747-1794)

Susanna Blamire, posthumously dubbed the ‘Muse of Cumberland’ has been called "unquestionably the best female writer of her age”

Rowland Burdon (1757 – 1838)

Rowland Burdon was a Newcastle Banker, one time Mayor of Stockton and the first Durham MP not to have been an aristocrat.

James Cawdell (1749-1800)

James Cawdell was an actor and manager of the Durham theatre circuit.

Samuel Butler (1750-1812)

Samuel Butler managed one of the most successful northern theatre circuits of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

John Cunningham (1729-1773)

Although now forgotten, this Irish actor was the nation’s leading pastoral poet at mid-century.

West Digges (1720-1786)

West Digges was a popular actor in Ireland before working in Scotland and the north of England.

George Garbutt (1791-1859)

George Garbutt was from Sunderland and a local historian and freemason

Francis Gentleman (1728-1784)

Francis Gentleman was an Irish actor, poet, playwright and critic.

Francis Gibson (1753-1805)

The Whitby collector of customs Francis Gibson was a poet, playwright and fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

William Hutchinson (1732-1814)

William Hutchinson authored an early history of the County of Durham and the "Spirit of Masonry"

Stephen Kemble (1758 –1822)

Stephen Kemble was one of the greatest provincial theatre managers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

William Henry Lambton (1764-1797)

William Henry Lambton was the MP for Durham and installed as provincial Grand Master of Durham in 1788.

Charlotte Lowes / Deans (1768-1859)

Charlotte Lowes was a strolling player who worked across the north of England and left a valuable memoir of her career.

George W Meadley (1774-1818)

GW Meadley was a literary figure in eighteenth-century Sunderland

William Newton (1730-1798) 

Newcastle-born William Newton exemplifies the new local builder-architect that catered to élite coal-rich clients

William Shield (1748 – 1829)

Well-known composer to George III, William Shield started his musical career as the Durham theatre company’s band leader

Robert Tannahill (1774 – 1810)

Robert Tannahill was a Scottish laboring class poet from Paisley, near Glasgow, known as the "Weaver Poet”

James Tate (1771 – 1843)

James Tate was a teacher and man of the church who was close friends with northern actors

William Taylor of Norwich (1765 –1836)

William Taylor was a prolific critic and scholar based in Norwich

Jane Wallis (1774-1848)

She was known as 'Miss Wallis of Bath' but Jane Wallis actually hailed from the north.

Ann Wheeler (1734-1804)

Ann Wheeler is a rare example of a Westmoreland dialect writer.

Tipping Brown (1758-1811)

Dr Tipping Brown was a highly regarded freemason, musician and literary man

Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)

Edinburgh's late eighteenth-century poet laureate.

James Field Stanfield (1749-1824)

The Dublin-born actor, James Field Stanfield (1749-1824), spent most of his career performing in theatres in the north of England.

Thomas Spence (1750-1814)

As a political radical, Thomas Spence was the proponent of the only political ideology, "Spencerianism", to have ever been outlawed in Britain.