Ann Thicknesse

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AT was, it seems, an opportunistic writer. Already accustomed to earning money from publicly performing music, she published five titles in four decades from 1761 to 1800: a self-justifying scandal memoir, two music manuals, a biographical dictionary and an autobiographical novel.

Milestones

22 February 1737

Ann Ford (later AT ) was born near the Temple in London, an only child.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

22 January 1761

Ann Ford (later AT ) issued the first of her two published texts from this year: A Letter from Miss F—d, Addressed to a Person of Distinction [Lord Jersey ], a defence of her conduct which was read, too, as scandalous gossip.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Thicknesse, Ann. A Letter from Miss F—d.
title-page

By March 1778

AT published with her name Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France, a biographical dictionary whose title includes the boast that it is Addressed to Mrs Elizabeth Carter.
Thicknesse, Ann. Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France. J. Dodsley, E. and C. Dilly, R. Cruttwell, and T. Shrimpton.
title-page
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
46 (March 1778): 218

By November 1781

AT completed the publication, this time by subscription, of another version or a continuation of her biographical dictionary Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France, now in three volumes of which the first is dated 1780.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
52 (November 1781): 349

Spring or later, 1800

The last of AT 's published works (again by subscription) was a heavily autobiographical novel or secret history, The School for Fashion.
The dedication's mention of sermons preached in Lent indicates that the book appeared around the Easter season.
Thicknesse, Ann. The School for Fashion. Reynell, Debrett and Fores, and Robinson.
1: vi

20 January 1824

AT died at eighty-six, after more than thirty years of widowhood.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

22 February 1737

Ann Ford (later AT ) was born near the Temple in London, an only child.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.