Ann Allan (1717-1785)
Ann Allan of Blackwell Grange was a prominent local philanthropist and friend to local personalities.
Biography
The novelist and playwright Thomas Holcroft developed his love of performance in London spouting clubs before starting his theatrical career as a prompter in Dublin’s Capel-Street and Smock-Alley theatres through the intercession of the Irish actor Charles Macklin. Holcroft then spent much of the 1770s as a strolling player. Holcroft joined Bates’ company in about 1777 and walked with the composer William Shield from Durham to Stockton-on-Tees when he occupied himself by studying Lowth’s Grammar, and reading Pope’s Homer. It was perhaps natural for Holcroft to associate with a musician, as in his previous company managed by Booth in Cumberland, he had been responsible for the music and was, he recorded, ‘literally the sole accompaniment to all songs, &c. on his fiddle in the orchestra’.