Thomas, Henry

Singer

Collection date: Apr 1907

Area: Gloucestershire

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Henry Thomas at Chipping Sodbury, Glos: age 76, 12 songs on 2/3 Apr 1907: Sharp gave Henry’s age as 76, which would mean a birth date of 1831. Certainly the photo of Henry looks like a man in his late 70s. But no reliable biographical details can be gleaned from any of the censuses and his life remains unclear at this time.

He was clearly a good singer, as 2 of his songs were published in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1913 ‘New Garden Fields’ (FT1291) and in 1927 ‘Seeds of Love’ (FT1288). In addition the 2 carols that he provided ‘The Virgin Unspotted’ and ‘Come all you true good Christians’ made it into Sharp’s English Folk-Carols book (Novello 1911).