Ann Cargill

Ann Cargill
As "Duenna" of Sheridan
Born Ann Brown
1760
Died 4 March 1784 (aged 23–24)
Isles of Scilly
Nationality British
Occupation Opera singer

Ann Cargill (born Ann Brown) (1760 – 4 March 1784) was a British opera diva and celebrated beauty whose life and death were a sensation in London at the close of the 18th century.

Death

Tempest, Miss Brown and Mr. Mattocks in the characters of Miranda and Ferdinand

By 1783, she had a new love. Her lover was in the British East India Company and stationed in Calcutta, so she left England for India. In 1783, she performed operatic parts in Calcutta, to tremendous applause, and her benefit night brought in "the astonishing sum of 12,000 rupees."[1][2]

She was a passenger on the packet ship Nancy, whose captain, John Haldane, was her lover, when it wrecked and sank off the Isles of Scilly on 4 March 1784. Her body, originally unidentified, was buried on Rosevear then reburied at Old Town Church on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. The newspaper accounts of her death and how the body had been found "floating in her shift" with an infant at her bosom made her a tragic figure for the English press. In September 2008, British divers claimed to have found the wreck of the Nancy, further out from the Isles of Scilly than was previously thought.[3][4]

Further reading

  • Stevens, Todd; Cumming, Edward. Ghosts of Rosevear and the wreck of the Nancy Packet.

References

  1. ↑ (Baldwin and Wilson, 93)
  2. ↑  Knight, John Joseph (1887). "Cargill, Ann". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ↑ Morris, Steven (2008-09-18). "Wrecks: We have found rich opera singer's ship, say divers". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  4. ↑ de Bruxelles, Simon (2008-09-18). "Divers close in on lost fortune of Ann Cargill, a scandalous star". The Times. London. Retrieved 2008-09-19.

Sources

  • Stevens and Cumming Ghosts of Rosevear and the wreck of the Nancy packet. ISBN 978-0-9542104-5-8
  • Baldwin, Olive; Wilson, Thelma (2004). "Ann Cargill". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. OUP.
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