William Besley
Life
Born: c1794
Died: 15 January 1848
Biography
William Besley was one of the most prolific contributors to Thomas Hawkes' A Collection of Tunes, Watchet: (1833). Details of Besley's identity are provided by an article Thomas Hawkes: His Psalmody, or Ten Minutes with an Old Tune Book, published in The Nonconformist Musical Journal in 1896. The author, Orlando A. Mansfield, prepared his article using 'copious information' provided by Thomas Hawkes jr., a son of the tune-book's compiler. In this article (p142, The Nonconformist Musical Journal, London: September 1896), Mansfield writes:
'The majority of the original contributions to Hawkes's Tunes emanated from Somersetshire men. Of these the most ambitious appears to have been William Besley, a schoolmaster of Wellington, Somerset.'
The 1841 census enumerators' returns (The National Archives: HO 107/950/5, folio 31) show William Besley, schoolmaster, living on the High Street in Wellington, with Sarah Besley: William's age is given as 45 and Sarah's as 50. Both are marked as having been born outside Somerset. The ages of those over 15 in the 1841 census were rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5 years, indicating a likely year of birth for William as c1792-1796.
The listing of 'Academies and Schools' for Wellington in Pigot's Directory of Somerset for 1842 (p87) includes 'Besley William, High st'.
The death register for the Wellington district records the death on 15 January 1848, at Wellington, of William Besley, aged 53, a school-master. Unless his birthday fell during the first 15 days of the year, it appears that this would place his birth c1794.
View the Wikipedia article on William Besley.
List of choral works
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