[1] Ann Hatton was born in Worcester, the daughter of strolling player Roger Kemble.

Ann was left in such straits financially that in that year she appealed for relief from the public in a newspaper advertisement, and even attempted suicide in Westminster Abbey.

From 1806 to 1809 Ann kept a dancing school in Kidwelly, but from 1809 onwards spent the remainder of her life in Swansea and became a well-known writer.

Between 1810 and 1831 she wrote poetry, and fourteen novels featuring gothic themes for Minerva Press, using the pseudonym of "Ann of Swansea".

Her work responded to the popular taste of the time for gothic fiction, social satire, and stories of moral progress, with stereotypical women as her characters: nuns are gothic, wives harangue, mothers are fussy, and old maids bad-tempered.