Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 376
Scan 376
the history of the violin, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 354. See the scan on archive.org.
1"he must have made at least 300 violoncellos, and the other instruments in proportion; perhaps not quite so many." Although he married very early, yet he has had no family; consequently he will be the last of this race as violin-makers.
3Associated with the name of Kennedy, as fiddle-makers, are James Brown, the elder and younger, both of whom, in early life, were silk-weavers, particularly the father, and lived in the locality of Shoreditch. About 1804 an intimacy arose with the Kennedy family, whereby James Brown the elder acquired some knowledge of fiddle-making; and, being made more perfect in the use of the tools by Thomas Kennedy, he at length became a repairer and maker of instruments for future support. About 1830 he slipped down the stairs of his dwelling-house, in Wheeler Street, Spitalfields, and broke one of the ancles; the fracture being most severe, the relatives were advised to take him to the hospital. Within a week of the accident, mortification set in, and he died at the age of seventy-five years, in September 1830 or 1834; the son does not remember the date accurately, but he thinks the former year; and he says they (father and son) resided in Wheeler Street for forty-six years, but not always in the same house. James Brown, the younger, was born November 1786, and learned to make fiddles of his father; but, to assist in other branches of the trade, he was mostly employed in making the various bows for the instruments. Since the death of his father, the greater attention has been given to the manufacture of violins, violoncellos, and double basses. This person died in 1860 at his residence in White Lion Street, Norton Folgate, in his seventy-fourth year. The father and son were good average workmen, but no marked style of finish. A son of this last person
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