Frederick Ashbolt (1836-1904)
I came across the name of Ashbolt as a dulcimer player in Huntingdon in some correspondence between two folk music collectors, Fred Hamer and Russell Wortley, the latter of whom had a particular interest in the dulcimer.
Hamer’s own source of information is not given, and he says that Ashbolt (St German’s Street, Huntingdon was a fiddle and his son played the dulcimer. Whilst Hamer set me off on the trail of a dulcimer player, it seems likely that the information he received and passed on might have been inaccurate in terms of the generations of musicians.
Frederick Ashbolt was born in Godmanchester on 5 April 1836 and moved into Huntingdon in the 1860s. He followed his father William into the brickmaking trade and from the mid 1890s also kept a pub in St Germain’s Street in the centre of Huntingdon, the Fox and Hounds.
He appears a couple of times in the local newspapers nearly all in the petty sessions for minor infringements of the law and domestic arguments, the most significant for our purposes being in 1875:
“Frederick Ashbolt, Huntingdon, dulcimer player, appeared on a summons by George Papworth shepherd, of Great Stukeley, charged with assaulting him at the White Horse public-house, on Saturday night, the 11th inst. Complainant was in the house having half a pint of beer, when defendant came in and commenced playing some tunes. After he had finished he asked complainant for a copper. Complainant said he had not got a penny as he had just spent the last. No further conversation took place but on complainant leaving the house defendant kicked him on the top part of his leg. – Defendant told the bench he did give complainant a gentle kick, but with the least intention of hurting him. He had no ill-will towards him. – The Bench told defendant he had admitted the assault, and he would be fined 8s. and costs 12s. – Paid.” (Cambridge Chronicle, 16 January 1875)
Another report from a few years earlier gives a tiny insight into what kind of music he might have played:
“The defendant and a witness named Frederick Ashbolt gave quite a different version of the affair, and from their statements it would seem that an argument arose about performing a hornpipe upon an instrument, as to who could do it best in the company.” (Cambridge Chronicle, 6 March 1869)
This incident involved a fracas with another musician – a Prussian accordion player – and there is no mention of anyone actually dancing a hornpipe, so it seems fairly clear that the contretemps was about playing music, not stepdancing.
After Frederick died, his widow Mary Ann, kept the pub on, but after her death, although the family continued to live at the same address, the pub itself was closed and their youngest daughter Florence taught music from the premises.
A number of Ashbolt’s children were also musicians and performers:
- son Frederick William (1861-1901) attempted a professional career on the stage as an actor and female impersonator as well as a “novel instrumentalist – selection on the dulcimer” according to an advertisement he placed in the The Era in 1894 (10 Nov, above).
- daughter Mary-Ann (1858-1946) married a musician from London, Thomas Fairall and joined him as a travelling musician for a few years until he died at a young age and she remarried and moved back to Huntingdon
- daughter Florence (1880-1937), who never married and lived in Huntingdon all her life, played the one-string fiddle, violin and banjo
- son William Robert (1869-1945) played the mandolin inbetween times working as a butler around the country until he came back to Huntingdon in the early 1900s after his father died
Fred Hamer’s letter to Russell Wortley – source of the name Ashbolt as a dulcimer player – was written on 30th December 1946, and alluded to a dulcimer player who played with his father, a fiddler, at the dancing booths erected for the village feasts in and around Huntingdon and Cambridge.
Hamer’s wording suggested someone still alive, but there were no Ashbolts in Huntingdon after 31st March 1845, and certainly none on St Germain’s Street. The reference to playing at village feasts would be another indication that the musicians he mentioned were actually no longer around at that date, as most village feasts had finished before the Second World War.
I am confident that I have found the family he referred to. However quite which people they were is less clear, given that we now know both Frederick and his son Frederick William to have played the dulcimer. The only family member actually documented as playing the fiddle/violin is Frederick’s daughter Florence.
So the possibilities are:
- The fiddle-player was Frederick’s father William (1805-1877 – we have nothing to prove he was musical) and the dulcimer player was Frederick, putting the likely date for the two to be playing together at the village feasts between 1850 and 1870.
- The fiddle-player was Frederick and the dulcimer player was his son Frederick William, putting the likely dates between 1880 and 1901.
- Hamer or his informant had the instrumentation the wrong way round and it was the father (i.e. Frederick) who played the dulcimer and his son who played the fiddle: William Robert is known to have played the mandolin and many musicians who play one of these instruments can also play the other). William Robert moved around a lot and spent time out of the area between 1881 and his father’s death in 1904, but he may well have found time to play at the feasts between other more conventional jobs.
However, we do now know irrefutably that Frederick Ashbolt definitely played the dulcimer in pubs around the area and had dance tunes in his repertoire.
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