Henry Edwards (1863-1955)
One dulcimer would have a particularly interesting tale to tell if it could only speak!
In 2005 we first came across a beautiful dulcimer, made by Mark Widdows of Norwich, when Frank Read brought it along to the EATMT Dulcimer Day at Gressenhall Museum in Norfolk.
Apart from being a wonderful example of an East Anglian dulcimer, made by the best of the local makers, it clearly had an interesting lineage. Written on the outside of the case, in pencil, is ‘Henry Edwards’ and inside were various bits of ephemera which indicated he had taken the dulcimer across the Atlantic in the early years of the twentieth century.
Below is just a brief summary of my findings, or you can read the whole fascinating story of Henry Edwards and the Norwich dulcimer that went to the USA.
Henry Edwards was a bootmaker from Norwich, and in 1914 he travelled, on his own, by train to Liverpool, from where he sailed to Boston on the Caronia on 2nd June, returning on the Lusitania in April 1915. He was lucky to cross the Transatlantic safely in either direction: the Caronia’s voyage from Liverpool was the last one before she was requisitioned for war service, and the Lusitania was sunk on 7th May 2015, just two weeks after Edwards made his return journey. Over a thousand people died when the Lusitania was sunk and it was a turning point in the war, encouraging the United States to be more involved.
Henry Edwards went out to the United States to visit his son Henry James Edwards, who had emigrated in 1910 and who lived for most of his life in upper New York State, being in the town of Canton, St Lawrence County, at the time of his father’s visit. We can only speculate as to the reason for his long sojourn (10 months) in the United States and why he took the dulcimer with him. Whatever the truth of the matter, his dulcimer was clearly important to him, and quite possibly he saw playing it as a way to make some money. On his return he continued to work in the boot-trade in Norwich, retiring sometime between 1921 (when he was working for one of the bigger shoe manufacturers in Norwich, Fred Sexton’s) and 1939. He died in late 1955 at the age of 92, followed within six months by both his wife and only daughter.
Nothing is known about Henry Edwards’ dulcimer playing, either in Norwich or in the USA, but this is a top-class instrument and would have been expensive in its time. There are no recordings of Henry Edwards, and – so far – no photos of him either.
Henry Edwards’ dulcimer
More photos and information about Henry Edwards’ dulcimer
Henry Edwards’ dulcimer is one of five known to have been made some time before 1889 by Norwich maker Mark Widdows (and is referred to here as Widdows no. 1) – there is more about Mark Widdows here, and you can also follow that link to compare instruments made by him.
In 1983 the dulcimer was acquired by Frank Read’s daughter, Sandra Adcock from an antique shop in Wymondham, Norfolk in 1983 and nothing is known about its ownership in the nearly three decades that had passed since Henry Edwards’ death. Frank played it until his death in 2006, and after that, Sandra contacted us and asked if we would like to buy the dulcimer. We didn’t think twice, as it is a beautiful instrument, and especially knowing so much about its previous history has made it a very special and precious instrument for us.
In 2018 we were contacted via the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club by someone who had bought a dulcimer in a saleroom and wanted to sell it on. On this dulcimer is a brass plaque with the inscription ‘H. Edwards maker 1891’. This could possibly be the same Henry Edwards, but the case is not proven – we don’t know this maker’s full name or where he lived.
However this instrument is stylistically very similar to the Widdows dulcimer belonging to “our” Henry Edwards. The most obvious difference is that the Widdows-made one has a unique decorative pattern around the sound-holes, whereas the Edwards-made one has the standard stencilled patterns, but in every other respect it looks almost identical. It is therefore very tempting to construct a scenario in which ‘our’ Henry Edwards from Norwich acquired the dulcimer featured on this page from Mark Widdows before his death in 1889 and almost immediately set about building what amounts to a replica. Edwards was a skilled craftsman, but worked with leather not wood, so maybe he worked alongside Mark Widdows with his proven instrument-making skills to build the instrument and finished it after his mentor died, adding stencil patterns made for the purpose, bought from Woods’ music shop in Lower Goat Lane. Why he would want two dulcimers is not clear – perhaps he built this one to sell, or perhaps it was made for his son Henry James Edwards – and perhaps this one too made its way to the United States! However, I must stress this is all conjecture with no concrete evidence!!
More photos and information about the dulcimer made by H. Edwards.
I have also written about this story on my other website, Unsung Histories in an article called The Well-Travelled Dulcimer
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