William Shakespeare 1841-1931

[giles.enders]

William Shakespeare  (John William Thomas Shakespeare)  Born 16th June 1849, Croydon, Surrey - Died 1st November 1931 at Heather Gardens, Golders Green.  House now demolished.

The son of John Shakespeare, a tailor, J.William was the eldest of five children¹  He married Louisa Maria Wieland in Germany in 1852. They had two children² He studied the organ under Molique and at the age of 17 won a Kings scholarship to The RAM from where he won the Mendelssohn scholarship to study in Leipzig.
He had a good tenor voice of considerable promise which took him to Milan to study with Lamperti.  He frequently sang in concerts throughout Europe, including at The Crystal Palace in London. From 1878 he was Professor of Singing at The RAM. He had a parallel career in composing.

Orchestral

Dramatic Overture Op.15 1874  pub. by Novello
Piano Concerto 1879  (Performed at The Brighton festival 1879)
Capriccio for piano and orchestra
Symphony in C minor
Several overtures

Chamber

Piano Trio
String Quartet No.1
String Quartet No.2

Piano

Piano Sonata
numerous other pieces for piano

Songs

'I said we'll ne'er grow old'

Church

The Office of Holy Communion in E flat   for organ?

1.
John William Thomas Shakespeare 1849-1931
James Benjamin Shakespeare 1852-1911
Harriett Rachel Shakespeare 1855-1919  spinster  left her estate to her sister
Sarah Shakespeare  1861-19 ? spinster
George Shakespeare  1866- ?

2.
Susanna Frederique Antoinette Marie Louise Shakespeare  1876-1912  Married Andrew Cassels Brown
Wallace Frederick William Shakespeare  20.3.1879

[Martin Eastick]

Also being Croydon-born, I have had a life-long interest in our local composers, and William Shakespeare is no exception. However, I have all but given up any hope of locating any of his music, with perhaps the exception of a few inconsequential anthems/part songs which I believe were published in the early 20th century. Novello published the Dramatic Overture, which seemed to be the only instrumental/orchestral work that was published, but this seems to have been destroyed/lost along with much similar material of similar vintage - although it still showed in the Novello hire library as late as the early 1990's. I believe there are one or two sets of string parts in the odd library collection, but these would be of little use without the score or a set of woodwind etc.

The Shakespeare name lives on in Croydon in the guise of a firm of funeral directors (J.B.Shakespeare & Co) - and, needless to say, I have been in touch, but with no success. I did gather some years ago from a family member that William was seen as rather a "black sheep" due to his pro-Germanic stance (culturally that is) at the time of the Great War - and I was also told that a portrait of him in the family home at the time was turned towards the wall!

The local paper (Croydon Advertiser) did print a short article a few years back, at my suggestion, with a general request for any information - and this did produce an interesting phone call from a decendant living in Canada, but this didn't lead to any further discovery or information as to the whererabouts of any mss.

So, if anyone has any further input here, it would be most welcome!

[eschiss1]

The Library of Congress claims to have some of these items, but in what form I don't know- their catalog is not very descriptive. It says "Dramatic Overture" but not whether it's a reduced score, score, or something else. Actually, it has two entries for Shakespeare, William, 1849 (??)-1931, Dramatic Overture op.15; one says "strings only" as you implied, the other seems quite undescriptive...

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree. The LoC Catalog entries can be monumentally unhelpful - just not enough information provided. I suspect (and hope) that the Dramatic Overture might be the Full Score - the entry "Strings only" may be the printed string parts. As you know, it was quite usual for a publisher to print a set of string parts, but have only one each of MS parts for the other instruments. These MS parts were, naturally, vulnerable and (alas!) in some cases have disappeared altogether.

[eschiss1]

alas I have somewhat the same trouble with the British Library Catalogue and wish more libraries would follow the Dutch Royal Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia (Fleisher Collection section) model - but that takes a _lot_ of time, I know.

[giles.enders]

Does anyone know if there are any surviving relatives?  Where he was buried or cremated.  Was he married? 1931 isn't that long ago for some of us,
so I find it hard to comprehend that someone out there didn't care about his works.

[giles.enders]

A little more info.

His full name was John William Thomas Shakespeare.  He was born at 9 Queen Street, Croydon on 16th June 1841 and died in Hendon Middlesex.  He was the eldest of at least four children..

[rjhfandclf]

I can add a small amount of info to this thread - just found during family research.

JWTS did marry a Marie Louise ?, and they had a daughter with the wonderful name of Susanna Frederique Antoinette Marie Louise Shakespeare - 'commonly' known as Mimie! She was a concert pianist of some quality, I believe. She married my great uncle, Arthur Cassels Brown in 1902 but sadly died in 1912 with no children. JWTS lived at Small Dean, Wendover, Bucks and also 14, Mansfield Street, London W., when he was listed on Mimie's marriage cert in 1902 as being 'Professor of Music'.

Not much help, I'm afraid.

[giles.enders]

Thankyou for the info.  Under what name did Susanna perform? Do you have any knowledge of where his manuscripts are or of his other compositions, please?

[Jimfin]

Interestingly, the original William Shakespeare also had a daughter called Susanna.

[rjhfandclf]

I regret that I know no more at this stage, however, I am transcribing my grandfather's lengthy diaries so if I come across anything more of interest I will let you know. I know there are references to Susanna's parents being nice people etc, but as our family connection was though the daughter, who died so soon after her marriage, I fear there will be little more.

[rjhfandclf]

I have just come across an entry in the London Gazette concerning the death and will of JWTS - see: www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/33792/pages/528/page.pdf - this should enable you to source a copy of his will, which with luck just might list a bequest of his works, or other descendant contacts to pursue.