Gage, Mr

Singer

Collection date: Jan 1906

Area: Somerset - Bridgwater Town

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Mr Gage? at Bridgwater: 1 song ‘John & Mary lay musing’ (Roud 1301) on 1 Jan 1906: In FT734 Sharp wrote that Mr Gage was ‘a bad singer’, varying each verse considerably but at least keeping the refrain consistent. It is quite possible that Mr Gage is the same person as the singer Mr Gordge but why would Sharp revisit a ‘bad singer’ the following day?

Elsewhere in the field notebooks Sharp notes ‘Gage, Market Street” but the only Gage entries of a suitable age in 1901 are: Mr James Gage 64, carpenter born Winsford, living with his wife Caroline and 4 grown up children at 38 Barclay St; and John Gage, 57, road labourer, also born at Winsford (brothers?) living at Wellington Place with his wife Anna Maria. At some point John Gage left the area, moving to Manchester to be with his son Francis (1911 census).

So James Gage may be the better bet (RG13/2283 f88 p24). He was baptised at Winsford 11/11/1838 and would have been 67 or 68 when he met Sharp. James died Dec qr 1916 5c 459.