HATTON, JULIA ANN (‘Ann of Swansea ’, 1764-1838), poet and novelist;
b. 29 April 1764 at Worcester, the seventh child of Roger Kemble (see Siddons, Sarah) and Sarah Ward. Lameness prevented her from following the family theatrical tradition and, before she was nineteen, she was unlucky enough to marry and be forsaken by an adventurer named Curtis. She published by subscription, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (London, 1783). She m. William Hatton in 1792 and accompanied him to America. They took a lease of Swansea Bathing House in ‘1799. On his death in 1806, she moved to Kidwelly where she kept a dancing-school. In 1809 she returned to Swansea and devoted herself to writing, being maintained by an annuity granted her by J. P. Kemble and Sarah Siddons. She wrote a play (‘Zaffine’) for the young Edmund Kean, and her Poetic Trifles (Waterford, 1811), shows some lyric power. Between 1815 and 1831, she produced at least a dozen novels. She d. 26 Dec. 1838.
Bibliography:
- Swansea Corporation Hall Day Minute Book, 1783-1821, 286;
- T. Campbell, Life of Mrs. Siddons, 1834, 8;
- B.M. Cat. P.B.;
- Cymru Fu, 12 Oct. 1889;
- Herald Cymr., 26 Jan. 1935.
Author:
Cecil John Layton Price, Ph.D. (1915-91), Aberystwyth / Swansea
