WILLIAM CALVERT MS
Dated 1812
Supposed to originate from Leyburn, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England.
VMP code WCa
In the private collection of Lynn Wood, of Yorkshire.
Transcribed into ABC by Chris Partington, May 2003
The William Calvert Manuscript is a typical Fiddler’s Tune Book of the early 19th C.
It has 52 pages and is approximately 7 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches tall, and has four neat staves to the page. There are accounts for grassland rents inside the front and rear covers, and some of the cash amounts are substantial.
It is inscribed repeatedly throughout with the name “Wm Calvert”, “Wm Calvert’s Book”, etc. and the date “1812”.
Lyn Wood aquired the book in Leyburn, North Yorkshire. A quick search for the name on the Familysearch Website reveals the great majority of Wm Calverts of the period to come from twenty miles either side of Northallerton in North Yorkshire.
Some of the tunes have fiddle fingering above the notes.
There are a small number of hymns and psalms, typical for this kind of tunebook, but the bulk of the material consists of 52 fiddle tunes, some of which are in distinctive settings. The Scottish influence in the reels and some of the jigs is large, typical of the age when the Gows dance band and their tune books were popular in both Scotland and England.
13 reels,
11 jigs
8 country dances
8 hornpipes
7 airs
2 slip jigs
1 each of marches,strathspeys,allemandes.
Notes by Chris Partington. 9/2003