Fanny Robertson (1765 – 18 December 1855), born Frances Mary Ross, was an actress and later the manager of the provincial theatres of the Lincoln Circuit.
[13] Miss F. Ross made her debut in Tragedy (on our theatric boards) for her sister's Benefit in the arduous character of Euphrasia ... and if the great applause she received may be taken as a criterion of her merit, her performance of the part may justify us in saying, that with practice and attention she bids fair to attain an elevated situation among the daughters of Melpomene.
[16] Audience behaviour could be unruly, and on occasion her husband had to take steps to protect Fanny and other actors, as recounted in this newspaper report: We are glad to find that the person who threw a glass at Mrs. Robertson from the gallery of the theatre, December last, is made sensible of his offense (see the advertisement in this page).
[19] In April 1810 she appeared with John Quick at Wisbech as Julia in The Way to Married, as Roasalind in As You Like It, and as Letitia Hardy in The Belle's Stratagem, finally as the widow Belmour in The Way to Keep Him.
[21] She performed opposite Edmund Kean as Portia and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in Lincoln in 1824, where he also played the title characters in Richard III, Othello and Hamlet.
[23] She performed as Ophelia opposite William Macready in Hamlet in September 1828 in Lincoln[24] and again in June 1836 in Wisbech and Peterborough to open a five-week season.
[25] Another West End actor brought by Robertson to perform at Wisbech and other Lincoln Circuit venues was Henry Compton.
A critic wrote that his performance as Touchstone in As You Like It and as Mawwarm in Isaac Bickerstaff's The Hypocrite "was capital, he kept the audience in one tumult of laughter from beginning to end".
She also announced a series of grand MUSICAL and INSTRUMENTAL CONCERTS by artists from the Gloucester Festival, to be held in Boston on 19th September and Lincoln on 21st and for race week.
"[33] After the Guy Fawkes Night performance of King John and Mary, the Maid of the Inn at Stamford,[34] the vocalists Elizabeth Inverarity, her husband Charles Martyn, his sister, Mr Frazer and Mr Stretton toured Peterborough, Wisbech, Boston and Lincoln with musical concerts in November 1841.
[35] The Wisbech theatre had been "lately fitted up and decorated at great expense, for the purpose of public assemblies and concerts" when it was offered for sale by auction at the White Hart Inn on 2 May 1843.
She appeared in the character of Lady Eleanor Irwin, in Elizabeth Inchbald's comedy Everyone Has His Fault after which she delivered a very neat and appropriate address.
Robertson, aged 80, was in a state of such poverty that Huntingdon and other towns on the Circuit opened subscription lists to remedy the situation.