Frederick Nicholls Crouch


Frederick William Nicholls Crouch was an English composer and cellist.

Early life and Civil War

Crouch was born in Marylebone in the city of Westminster, in London. He emigrated to the United States in 1841 and eventually settled in Richmond, Virginia. During the Civil War, Crouch took up arms for the Richmond Grays and the 1st Richmond Howitzers, Confederacy.

Music career

Crouch was noted as a fine cellist, having played in the King's Theatre as well as St Paul's Cathedral in London, before relocating to the United States, but the majority of his compositions were not successful.
File:Kathleen Mavourneen.pdf|thumb|"Kathleen Mavourneen" for guitar songbook published in Baltimore by Samuel Carusi in 1845, readable pdf
His most famous song is "Kathleen Mavourneen". It inspired several films. Clara Mulholland wrote the novel Kathleen Mavourneen published in 1890. Marie Doran wrote the four act play Kathleen Mavourneen published in 1918. He set the poem Donna Dear a by the British poet Katherine Ashton Simpson to music.
During his years in the United States, Crouch composed two operas and unsuccessfully tried various musical undertakings. Well traveled after the Civil War, Crouch eventually settled in Baltimore, Maryland.
He was married four times, and was the father of 17 children, including the famous French courtesan Cora Pearl.
He died on 18 August 1896 in Portland, Maine, and was buried on Confederate Hill in Baltimore's Loudon Park Cemetery.

Marriages and children

In 1832, he married the contralto Lydia Pearson in Plymouth.
  1. Ciantha Jane Crouch, who married Henry Mawdsley, had five children, and moved to the United States.
  2. William Crouch, died young
  3. Eliza Emma Crouch, better known as Cora Pearl.
  4. Hannah Lydia Crouch, died after 1851.
  5. Charlotte Crouch, died young.
  6. Louisa Elizabeth Crouch, married Paul Otto Shmaltz in Berlin, 1896.
He left his wife and children in April 1841, and moved back to London. In 1843, he went through a Roman Catholic marriage ceremony with Elizabeth 'Bessie' George. They had two sons.
In 1849, he left his second wife Bessie and moved to the United States where he married Jane A. Solomon. Together they had:
9. Walter Francis Crouch, married in 1879 to Maggie Stadtler. They had six children
10. Caroline "Carrie" Crouch, a teacher, married in 1893 to William Brooks.
In 1870, he was married to Martha Elizabeth Vaughn. They had several children:
11. Jane Crouch
12. Junius Crouch
13. Rose Crouch
14. Blanche Crouch
15. Ann Maria Crouch, married Charles Boston in 1897 and had a son.
16. Frederick William Crouch, married to Dorothy Sherry in 1907.
17. Thomas Crouch, died young.