Lucy White
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Lucy Anna White (4 September 1848 – 17 February 1923) was a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
folk-singer from
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...
. She was an early source of songs for the folk song collector
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...
and she is said to have shaped his interests. Her half-sister was another singer named Louie Hooper (1860-1946) (born Louisa England).


Life

White was born in
Puckington Puckington is a village and civil parish, situated south-east of Taunton and west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlet of South Bradon. History The name of the village means ''the settle ...
in Somerset in 1848. Her mother was Sarah Bridge who taught her many songs. When she was about thirteen her mother married William England in 1855. She grew up in a family of six children including her half-sister Louie was born in 1860. She sometimes used the name Lucy England. Louie was unable to walk but they both worked with others involved in glove and shirt-making. White was working on collars at the age of ten. She married Jonathon White in 1875 and Louie married George Hooper in 1884. Between 1875 and 1884 she had eight children although two were illegitimate. Louie had three children after her marriage to George Hooper even though he had died soon after they married. In the 1890s Louie and Lucy were living next door to each other in Westport. She came to notice because
Charles Marson Charles Latimer Marson (16 May 1859 – 3 March 1914) was an influential figure in the second wave of Christian socialism in England in the 1880s. Later between 1903 and 1906 he collaborated with his good friend Cecil Sharp in the collection and p ...
came as the vicar to her village. He was a socialist, an enthusiast for his parishioners and a bane to the church authorities. His friend
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...
was a music teacher as he was Principal of the Hampstead Conservatoire of Music. In 1903 Sharp came to visit Marson in Somerset and Sharp started to collect songs. Other local singers like Emma Overd came to the notice of Sharp in 1904. Sharp's income was derived after 1905 largely from lecturing and publishing folk music. Sharp's books began to be published in 1905 and it included 19 of the songs that Lucy and Louie had taught him and one of the tunes. They had sung 33 tunes to Sharp including 27 sung just by Hooper. Sharp had visited them over twenty times. They were both credited in Sharp's books. After they were published Sharp gave a copy of the books to them with the dedication that "exchange is no robbery". Their songs ''Seventeen Come Sunday'', ''Henry Martin'', ''Sweet Kitty'' and ''The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell'' were among those chosen as "Folk Songs from Somerset". White died in Hambridge and Westport in 1923. She was survived by her half sister Louie, who was recorded singing by the BBC in 1942.


Further reading

Lucy White in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Lucy 1848 births 1923 deaths People from Somerset English folk singers