Mary Ann Orger born Mary Ann Ivers (25 February 1788 – 1 October 1849) was a leading actress in Scotland and Drury Lane. She was a playwright and the mother of composer Caroline Reinagle.

Life

Ives was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1788. Her father was a musician, William Ivers, and her mother was an actress who allowed her daughter to appear. At a young age she was being carried on to the stage and she was on the playbill at the age of five. By the age of nine she was singing in Brighton and at age eleven she was taking the part of a gypsy at

Frogmore Frogmore is an estate within the Home Park, adjoining Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. It comprises , of primarily private gardens managed by the Crown Estate. It is the location of Frogmore House, a royal retreat, and Frogmore Cottage. Th ...

at a fête organised by

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

. By the age of fifteen she was admired by Thomas Orger who married her in 1804. Thomas had been a Quaker, who did not visit theatres, so he had to leave that group when he married her. She was well read and her husband, Dr Thomas Orger was a translator of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

and

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

, and he had written a book about Napoleon. He didn't object to her acting and he become a founder member of the

Swedenborg Society The Swedenborg Society was founded in 1810 to translate into English and publish the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. Its original name was the London Society for Printing and Publishing the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Society's headquarters, S ...

and the editor of ''Intellectual Repository''. Mary too, like her husband, became a member of the Swedenborgian church. She had a pause after her marriage before she returned to the stage in Edinburgh in 1805 as ''Amelia Wildenshaw'' in ''Lovers Vows''. She did not get on with the manager there so she headed north to appear in Aberdeen. She then moved to Glasgow in 1806 when the company included Maria Kelly,

Lydia Kelly Lydia Rose Ellen Kelly (born 25 September 1990 in Manchester, England) is a British actress best known for her portrayal of Lydia Hart in the long-running Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began ai ...

and Miss Frances. In Glasgow she appeared in Rosoman Mountain's benefit performance. She made £78 as a result of a

benefit performance A benefit performance is a type of live entertainment which is undertaken for a cause. In its original usage, benefit performances were opportunities for an actor to supplement his/her income. In its modern usage, benefit performances are given to ...

. She was a leading actress and the mother of the composer Caroline Reinagle who was born in 1817.Patrick Waddington, ‘Reinagle , Caroline (1817–1892)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200
accessed 14 March 2015
/ref> left, in Lock and Key in 1824 In 1807 she appeared in Glasgow as Caroline Sedley in James Kenney's False Alarm in a benefit for the singer and actress Rosoman Mountain.Joseph Knight, ‘Orger , Mary Ann (1788–1849)’, rev. J. Gilliland, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 14 March 2015
/ref> She made her debut at Driry Lane as ''Lydia Languish'' in

The Rivals ''The Rivals'' is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 List of Maverick ...

on 4 October 1808. Despite the fire in the following year she was at Drury Lane until 1831 although this was not an exclusive arrangement. On 10 March 1825 a farce she had written, ''Change Partners'', was performed at Drury Lane. She died in Brighton on 1 October 1849.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orger, Mary Ann 1788 births 1849 deaths Actresses from London 19th-century British women singers 19th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights Scottish women dramatists and playwrights