Ann Catley

Ann Catley (1745–1789), also known as Ann Lascelles, was an English singer, actress, and prostitute. Personal life Catley was born near Tower Hill, London, to hackneyed coachman and a washer woman. Mr. Catley spent his earnings only on himself, often taking his wife's wages as well. Ann helped her mother as a laundress. at the age of ten, she became acquainted with Colonel Lascelles, known for his relation to the Prince of Wales. He found she could sing and she began performing for the neighborhood, at a young age, she was known for her angelic voice and looks, garnering multiple admirers. She first made her money singing in pubs and to the garrison of the Tower of London. It was not known if Ann lost her virginity to any of the “numerous corp admirers who daily laid siege to her” but it was “certain that she had scarcely entered her fourteenth year when she parted with her innocence” (Ambross, 8). Her parents’ strict account of her earnings and subsequent abuse may have been a factor in her introduction to sex. Ann later moved in with a linen draper after an abusive bout with her parents that resulted in “cuffs and blows” and Ann “fully determined to accept the first asylum offered” (Ambross 9). After a week spent with the draper, Catley's parents begged her to come back after recognizing her full value. Her parents welcomed her with open arms and her affair with the draper ended after a month. Ann then “resolved to indulge in them [sex] for the purposes of pecuniary advantage, as well as sensual gratification” (Ambross, 12). She was apprenticed aged fifteen to William Bates, a composer and singing teacher, with a £200 penalty in case of misconduct from the child. It would be three years before she met Delaval at nineteen at the Marybone Gardens. She managed to gain an appearance at Vauxhall music hall at aged 17 in the summer and the Covent Garden the following fall under his mentorship. However, even though Ann gained the beginnings of success, Ann soon found herself at odds with Mr. Bates, a scandal soon emerged when Bates sold Ann's apprenticeship to her admirer Sir Francis Blake Delaval of Seaton Delaval Hall for £200. Bates was given money by Delaval in addition to make up for any financial loss to him. Catley's father, Robert Catley, could see that Ann had been sold. Aided by his employer, her father sued the rake Delaval and Bates.