Ann Thicknesse

Ford was born on 22 February 1737 in London. and elocution lessons by Thomas Sheridan. She performed a series of subsequent concerts, including daily performances from 24 October to 30 October of that year, although it was considered controversial for a woman to play the "masculine" viola da gamba, referred to at the time as the viol di gambo. Ford gave a performance at Spring Gardens in 1761, "English airs", accompanying herself on the musical glasses. The instrument was comparable to the glass harp of Richard Pockrich consisting of individual glass goblets tuned with water, and preceded the 1761 mechanized armonica (glass harmonica) invention of Benjamin Franklin and played by Marianne Davies. Ford's accomplishments risked being complicated by an infatuated lover, the Earl of Jersey, who offered her £800 a year to be his mistress. When she refused, Lord Jersey tried to sabotage her initial public concert, but she earned £15 from it nonetheless. In 1761, she published a pamphlet, A Letter from Miss F—d to a Person of Distinction, defending her position. This in turn provoked a pamphlet from the Earl, A Letter to Miss F–d. The brief pamphlet war between them differed in subject and tone from others conducted in that era. ==Later life==

On 27 September 1762, she became the third wife of Philip Thicknesse, thereby gaining higher social standing. They had a son who became Captain John Thicknesse RN (c. 1763–1846). She and her husband were travelling to Italy in 1792, during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, when Thicknesse died suddenly in Boulogne. Anne was arrested as a foreigner and imprisoned. After the execution of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, she was released under a general pardon for all prisoners who could prove that they could earn their living; her profession stood her in good stead. In 1800, Ford published an autobiographical roman à clef entitled The School for Fashion by Anne Thicknesse, which included many public figures of the day in thin disguise. She herself featured as Euterpe. She discussed issues including the choices facing a woman which included being a mistress. Her Euterpe not that moral issues were important - unless you were in the highest social class. This was one of the last "School for?" books and it was similar in content to the noted play "School for Scandal". Her portrait was painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1760. It was said to be un-ladylike because she had her legs crossed (like a man). ==References==