ABSTRACT
During the 1690s, one of the most popular actresses at the Drury Lane theatre was Ann Bracegirdle. When she died in 1748, it was stated on her memorial that she was 85 years of age, in which case she would have been born in 1663; but the date of her birth has been questioned, and it does seem more likely that she was in her early rather than her late twenties at the time of the events described in this chapter. 1
A man called Captain Richard Hill was in love with Ann, but he thought that she was in love with a fellow actor, William Mountford, and Hill believed that it was Mountford alone who stood in the way of his courtship of the actress; so he devised a plan -to kidnap Ann and carry her away into the country.
