View source for Walter Henry Mayson

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'''Walter Henry Mayson''' (8 November 1835 - 31 December 1904) was an English [[violin]] maker.
==Biography==
Walter Henry Mayson was born in [[Cheetwood]], then a small town about a mile and a half north of [[Manchester]]. He was the fourth child out of eleven with five brothers and four sisters.<ref name="Morris">{{cite book|author=William Meredith Morris|title=Walter H. Mayson: an account of the life and work of a celebrated modern violin maker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOE5AAAAIAAJ|accessdate=21 August 2013|year=1906|publisher=Caxton Press}}</ref> After a few years the Mayson family moved to [[Cheetham Hill]], another two miles away from Manchester. Mrs. Mayson opened a school there with two of her sisters. Mayson was sent to the school and was taught by Thomas Whalley.
At seventeen, Mayson was apprenticed at J. & A. Phillips & Co., a firm of merchants.  His sister, Mary Ann, was married to a composer and organist, Joseph Thorne Harris of [[Manchester Cathedral]], Manchester. Mayson spent all of his leisure time at his sister's house, where his love for music was encouraged.<ref name="Morris"/> Told that his dead grandfather's fiddle was for sale, he struck a bargain with the owner, and started taking lessons. His mother, Elizabeth Green, was the daughter of [[William Green (painter)|William Green]] the landscape painter.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burkett |first=Mary E. |title=William Green of Ambleside: a lake district artist  ; Abbot Hall Art Gallery [Kendal, April - June 1984] |last2=Sloss |first2=J. D. G. |last3=Green |first3=William |last4=Burkett |first4=M. E. |date=1984 |publisher=Abbot Hall Art Gallery |others=Abbot Hall Art Gallery |isbn=978-0-9503335-4-0 |location=Kendal}}</ref>
On 18 November 1904 Mayson had a [[paralytic seizure]]. On 26 December he had another stroke and did not regain consciousness before his death on 31 December.
==Fiddle making==
At age 39, Mayson started to make fiddles.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Meredith Morris|title=Walter H. Mayson: an account of the life and work of a celebrated modern violin maker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOE5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24|accessdate=21 August 2013|year=1906|publisher=Caxton Press|page=24}}</ref> He took a room in [[Barton Arcade]], [[Deansgate]], Manchester where he produced 10 fiddles. His first customer, James Fildes, paid £10. During this period Mayson also wrote, and some of his songs and essays were published in Manchester newspapers. In 1899, he wrote a book called ''Violin Making''.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Meredith Morris|title=Walter H. Mayson: an account of the life and work of a celebrated modern violin maker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOE5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA73|accessdate=21 August 2013|year=1906|publisher=Caxton Press|page=73}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=33224}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Walter Henry Mayson}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayson, Walter Henry}}
[[Category:1835 births]]
[[Category:1904 deaths]]
[[Category:British luthiers]]
[[Category:People from Cheetham Hill]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Manchester]]
[[Category:19th-century English businesspeople]]