Fudge, James

Singer

Collection date: Sept 1908

Area: Somerset - Taunton District

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James Fudge of East Combe (1830-?): age 78 1 song 'Geordie' (FT1876) on 10 Sept 1908: Like singers Conibeer, Gulliver and Amos Ash, James Fudge was interviewed by Henry Hammond before Sharp got to him. Both collectors achieved the same song ‘Geordie’. Hammond called him ‘Sergeant Fudge’, because he was an Army Pensioner.

James Fudge was baptised at Cothelstone church on 21/3/1830, son of George, labourer of Cushuish & wife Sophia. James was a labourer, 21 with his parents in 1851 and must have joined the Army soon afterwards (Crimean veteran?). He got married to an Irish girl, Bridget Clement in Moy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 17/12/1853. They can’t be traced in the 1861 and 1871 censuses but were settled in the Bishop’s Lydeard census of 1881 – James Fudge, 48, Army pensioner and agricultural labourer, with wife and 3 children. These were George, 19, born Gosport, Hants; Sarah, 11 born Alderney, Channel Islands; and Sidney, 4 born Bishop’s Lydeard. So James Fudge got about a bit and picked up songs on the way, no doubt. The 1901 census ref is RG13/2279 f25 p16. Details of James Fudge’s death to be confirmed.