George Gillingham (bef. 1768 - 1827)

Born before 11 Dec 1768 in Toddington, Bedfordshire, England

Husband of Ann Hazel — married 5 Dec 1803 in Baltimore, Maryland

Descendants

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Biography

George Gillingham was baptised on December 11, 1768 in Toddington, Bedfordshire, England. He was the son of Thomas and Ann Gillingham.^[1]

George Gillingham was born in England in 1768. He became an accomplished musician and was known for performing in the Handel Memorial Concerts in London in 1784 and became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians in 1790. He moved to America in 1793 and established himself as a music teacher in Philadelphia.^[2] On 5 December 1803 he married Anne Hazel in Baltimore, Maryland.^[3] He later moved to New York City, where he became the conductor and first violinist of a theater company.

George Gillingham is mentioned in several contemporary sources. In his book "Retrospections of America, 1797-1811"^[4] John Bernard, who came to America as an actor and promoter, writes of his traveling with George Gillingham and his wife. Brander is unusually respectful of his American hosts and has a very clear understanding of the history and customs of American life at the time. Nevertheless, he treats Gillingham as a sort of comic character, particularly because of his first wife. This is an excerpt from Bernard's book:

Gillingham, my singer and musician, was a worthy little fellow whose chief blessing had, by its intensity, become a curse. He possessed a wife who loved him with such ardent devotion that she was perpetually making him miserable by her endeavors to promote his happiness. Her life consisted of a series of endearments; her vital principle seemed to be communicated from his lips, and neither time, place, nor business could be allowed to suspend its operation. Now, as our little fiddler had much more of Apollo in his art than in his person, and Mrs. G. was neither young nor ethereal - being a very matter-of-fact sort of person of about 13 stone weight - all this Arcadianism was exceedingly ludicrous. Her husband had the good sense to be ashamed of it ...^[5]

After he married his second wife, Ann Hazel, Gillingham had three daughters. [Gillingham^[6] mentions only two daughters, Emma and Julia, but there is abundant evidence of a third daughter, see Louisa Gillingham]. George Gillingham became quite active in the New York musical scene. His name appears several times in Sonneck^[7] who says:

George Gillingham, who had played in the orchestra at the Handel Commemoration of 1784, was by all accounts a very able violinist. His career as a leader extended far into the nineteenth century. A picture representing him in this capacity at the Park theatre, New York, in 1827 is preserved at the New York Historical Society.

There is a pamphlet in the New York Historical Society Library entitled: Grand oratorio, : to establish a fund for the cultivation of sacred music. : At St. Paul's on Thursday evening, June 6, 1816. : Leader of the band, Mr. Gillingham. See NYHS link.

George's daughters also performed publicly, primarily as singers, (see Louisa Gillingham ) and he seems to have trained them well. Both George and his wife Ann died in 1827, when his American daughters were still quite young. The reason for their deaths is unknown.

Sources

^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J7MG-QQH : 11 February 2018, George Gillingham, 11 Dec 1768); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 845,459.
2. ↑ A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London 1680-1800, Garrick to Gyngell: Volume 6; Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans, SIU Press , January 1, 1978, pp.212-213
3. ↑ Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Source number: 589.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: LRB. Record for George Gillingham.
4. ↑ Retrospections of America, John Bernard, Laurence Hutton, and Brander Matthews, Harper and Brothers, Franklin Square, New York, 1887
5. ↑ Retrospections of America, John Bernard, Laurence Hutton, and Brander Matthews, Harper and Brothers, Franklin Square, New York, 1887, p. 118
6. ↑ Gillingham Family, Descendants of Yeamans Gillingham, compiled by Harrold Edgar Gillingham, Patterson and White Company, Philadelphia, 1901, page 98, Archive.org
7. ↑ Early Concert Life in America, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, Breitkopf and Hartel, Leipzig, 1907