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| Murmuring Sea Words: Mrs. Crawford Music: Stephen Glover |
Murmuring Sea:
Vocal Duet, Piano Accompaniment
Mrs. Crawford, lyricist
(Louisa Matilda Jane Crawford)
Stephen Glover, composer
New York: Hitchcock & McCargo Publishing Co.
ca. 1890
Blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com
Source material taken from news articles on Newspapers.com, an historic newspaper websites accessed through subscription as well as other internet sites.
The ca. 1890 publishing date for the Hitchcock and McCargo sheet music edition of Murmuring Sea was ascertained from the copyright date of another song advertised on the back side of the sheet music cover.
When Was the First Sheet Music Edition?
The poem Murmuring Sea was first published in an 1894 edition of the Metropolitan Magazine. The first sheet music edition of Mrs. Crawford's poem to music by Stephen Glover, published by Robert Cocks & Company, followed soon after in the same year.
***This blog post offers biographical and historic information on the following:
1. Mrs. Crawford
2. Stephen Glover
3. Hitchcock & McCargo Publishing Co.
4. Benjamin W. Hitchcock
1. Mrs. Crawford
Murmuring Sea, the Poem was written by Mrs. Crawford, a poetess with many works used for compositions of parlor and entertainment music.
Who Was Mrs. Crawford? Speculation
Although only published under Mrs. Crawford, many sources, including the United States Library of Congress, give her full name as Louisa McCartney Crawford (ca. 1790-1855), She was also known as Louisa Matilda Jane Crawford and Julia Crawford, wife of barrister Matthew Crawford and daughter of Col. Montagu, celebrated naturalist and author Ornithological Diction; or, Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds (1802).
Who Was Mrs. Crawford? The Key
The key to discovering the identity of Mrs. Crawford lie in discovering a tie to her most famous poem, Kathleen Mavourneen.
Who Was Mrs. Crawford? Proof!
Hours of searching the internet turned up nothing but speculative information until today, 3 November 2017, at 5:30 p.m., and it presented itself in a preface note and footnote accompanying the poem Stanzas to the Art of Printing, found in The Metropolitan Magazine, Vol. XLIII (43), pages 341-342, written by M.G.D. Hyde. LINK
The preface note states that Miss Louisa Matilda Montague, now Mrs. Crawford, is the daughter of Col. Montagu, of Lackham Hall, Wilts.
Selections of the footnote I quote here with added paragraph breaks for ease in reading:
An old hand has faithfully copied out these lines on Printing. Mrs. Crawford will, probably long since have forgotten both them and the humble individual who sends them to the Metropolitan, and who, in the summer of 1806, was staying at Lacock Abbey, Wilts, on a visit to their mutual friend the late Countess of Shrewsbury.
Her worthy old priest, the Rev. George Witham, was at that very time busily employed in printing copies of songs and poems by Miss Louisa Montagu, riddles by the Misses Methuen, and other contributions from youthful visitors to the Abbey.
The lovely sisters of Lord Methuen were delighted to see their riddles in print; the still more lovely Miss Wortley Montague ('the fairest flower on Avon's classic banks') looked with a sister's loving eye upon those rude types that ushered into more general notice the girlish productions of the future authoress of 'Kathleen Mavourneen.' Truly those were pleasant times, and can never be forgotten by M.G.D. Hyde.
Marriage of Louisa Matilda to H. Crawford
The New Annual Register for the Year 1822 or General
Repository of History, Politics, Arts, Sciences and Literature (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1823), announces the November marriage of Louisa Matilda, daughter of colonel Montague, of Lackham-house, Wilts, to H. Crawford, esq. of the Middle Temple. LINK
Louisa Matilda Montagu Crawford's obituary appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review by Sylvanus Urban, MDCCCLVIII (1858).
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| Louis Matilda Jane Crawford Obituary |
Louisa Matilda Crawford: Obituary
Aged 68, Louisa Matilda Jane Crawford, wife of Matthew Crawford, esq., barrister-at-law, of the Middle Temple, and younger dau. [daughter] of the late Col. Montagu, the celebrated naturalist, of Lackham-hall, Wilts, and Knowle-house, near Kingsbridge. LINK
2. Stephen Glover
Source: Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 22, pp. 8-9. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, editors. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1890. LINK
Glover, Stephen (1812–1870), composer and
teacher, brother to Charles William Glover was born in London in 1812, and
became a popular composer of songs, ballads, and duets. The 'Monks of Old,'
1842, 'What are the Wild Waves saying,' 185O,' Excelsior,' and 'Songs from the
Holy Scriptures,' illustrate the range and taste of the fourteen or fifteen
hundred compositions Glover presented to the public from 1847 till his death,
on 7 Dec. 1870, at the age of 58.
Stephen Glover: Obituary
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| Stephen Glover: Obituary Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester NY 6 Jan. 1871 source: Newspapers.com |
3. Hitchcock and McCargo Publishing Co.
The Hitchcock and McCargo Publishing Company operated from 985 Sixth Avenue in New York City. Hitchcock was president, and McCargo the secretary. The company published sheet music at several price points, including the offering of their half-dime and dime series.
Searches yielded very little about Randolph McCargo. I was, however, able to piece together the following biographical information on Benjamin Hitchcock.
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| Benjamin W. Hitchcock's New and Elegant Third Avenue Theatre source: Newspapers.com |
4. Benjamin W. Hitchcock
Benjamin W. Hitchcock operated businesses in
music publishing and real estate as well as in entertainment at Hitchcock’s
Third Avenue Theatre in New York. Among his publications he offered sheet music
in a Dime and Half-Dime series and Hitchcock’s New Monthly Magazine.
According to news articles of the time, Hitchcock’s real estate dealings were reviewed
as being somewhat shady. Perhaps if he had focused only on publishing he would
have not fallen into a downward spiral beginning in 1893, with the loss of both
reputation and income.
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| Hitchcock's Adams Park Development. The Atlanta Constitution, 15 Mar. 1891. source: Newspapers.com |
Adams Park: The First Point of Development in
Hitchcock’s Georgia Colony
In the March 24, 1891 edition of The Atlantic
Constitution, Atlanta Georgia, Hitchcock was described in this manner: “There
stands the most wonderful hustler of them all.”
One of his real estate endeavors was offering sale of property in a new
town development he named Adams Park in the state of Georgia.
Baby Shows
In 1854, P.T. Barnum was the first 19th-century
promoter who staged what was called a Baby Show. They were more than contests
naming the cutest baby. Prizes varied with awards for fattest baby, tiniest
baby, etc. Always controversial, Hitchcock had a baby show in the works in
1897.
Hitchcock, concerned about what panic would
come from the presence of the Gerry Society, took the Society to court asking
for a permanent injunction preventing their interference with his show.
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| Entries Are Now Being Received for the Great International Baby Show The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 3 Jan. 1897. Source: Newspapers.com |
The New York Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, was often called the Gerry Society for a co-founder,
Thomas Gerry Elbridge. The case was heard by Justice Andrews. Counsel for the
Society argued “the show was unlicensed, and that it was cruel and barbarous,
injurious to children, and that it was the duty of the defendants under the law
to stop it.” (New York Tribune, January 27, 1897)
On February 2, Justice Andrews ruled baby shows
illegal, saying “I am of the opinion that the plaintiff, by providing and
managing the exhibition mentioned in the complaint, was perpetrating an act
forbidden by the Penal Code, and that the agents and officials of the defendant
had the right to interfere and prevent such act either by arresting the
plaintiff or by requiring the mothers to remove their children from the hall,
under penalty of being themselves arrested.” (The Sun, New York, February 2,
1897. Source: Newspapers.com)
Before the ruling came down, however, Benjamin
W. Hitchcock disappeared. Two conflicting reports were printed. The Brooklyn
Daily Eagle (January 30) reported that after three days “severe weather,
numerous cases of croup and threatening scarlet fever so depleted the exhibit
that the manager found it impossible to continue.”
On the same day the New York
Times, however, reported that when mothers arrived at the Gramercy Lyceum on
Friday, January 29, they found carpenters dismantling and removing display
stands. Musicians were not paid, and Hitchcock was out of the city and date of
his return unknown.
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| Benjamin W. Hitchcock Obituary The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 18 Apr. 1916 source: Newspapers.com |
Benjamin W. Hitchcock, in his 89th
year of life, died in his home in Jersey City. A bold entrepreneur who was
willing to take big risks that never quite became big successes, his death
announcement was only a few lines long.
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