Huntington, Gale. William Litten's Fiddle Tunes: 1800 – 1802, Vineyard Haven, Mass.: Hines Point Publishers, 1977.

“"William Litton’s Fiddle Tunes 1800-1802" ~ extracts from the introduction by Gale Huntington, pages 6 & 7

This collection of fiddle tunes was made by William Litten at sea on a vessel, or on two different vessels, of the British India fleet in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802.

Everything that we know about the man is from disjointed material on the inside front and back covers of the manuscript book and from scraps of information on the pages of the book itself and from the music. The notes in the text are difficult to decipher because Litten’s handwriting and spelling are both very bad, and in places the paper has bled. On the other hand the tunes themselves were transcribed without too much difficulty, for Litten was a good musician.

The manuscript is in the library of the Dukes County Historical Society* in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Here are some of the facts that we can gather from the scattered notes. The British India fleet sailed from England May 27th, 1800, and arrived in China February 10th, 1801.

(Note: the author in correspondence with ~ John Compston, E.D., D. Litt. of Australian National University, says that the fleet visited Australia and may have made other stops during the passage.)

The fleet consisted of sixteen war vessels. The names of the vessels and of six of the captains of them are listed on the inside back cover of the book. ~ We can not be sure which ship Litten was on on the voyage out, but on the return voyage he was evidently on H.M.S. Gorgon, for he mentions a stop of that vessel at St. Helena on June 3rd, 1802. Litten’s duty was that of ship’s musician. At that time there was no chanteying on British war vessels, for chanteying was considered much too undignified for His Majesty’s service. Instead of a chanteyman all war vessels of any size carried and official fiddle player whose music helped to lighten some of the heavier work. A little after Litten’s time the cornet began to compete with the fiddle.
~
The manuscript was brought home to the Vineyard by Allen Coffin of Edgartown. His name appears on the inside cover of the book. Allen Coffin must surely have been younger than Litten. But they may have been shipmates, if not on that voyage perhaps on a later one. Coffin was born in 1788. But many boys did go to sea at twelve or thirteen in those days, and many American were serving in the British navy, usually because they had been pressed into the service.

James Coffin, Allen’s father, had been a seaman and then a shipmaster. But by 1800 he had retired from the sea and was an Edgartown merchant and a man of real wealth for the Period. He had a fleet of small merchant vessels that sailed to all parts of the world. Such men as James Coffin often did send their sons to sea at an early age to learn the business.

We cannot be sure that Allen Coffin played the fiddle but he probably did or why would he want Litten’s book? Also there were a great many more fiddle players a hundred and seventy-five years ago than there are today. (1970s) We do know that Allen’s family was a musical one, tow of his daughters played the violin and played it well. It could be just that fact that accounts for the book’s survival.

Allen Coffin is mentioned several times in Jeremiah Pease’s diary for the early years of the 19th century. Jeremiah was a singer and he and Allen were friends. They used to go fishing and eeling through the ice together. Perhaps they made music together too.

But about William Litten we do not know even whether he was English, Scottish, Irish or American. There are some very good Irish tunes in the book and some equally good Scottish and English ones. However Litten did not seem to care too much for the typically Scottish dotted eighth and sixteenth note combination. In fact, some of his Scottish tunes play like Irish versions of them. There are even some almost American tunes in the book. That "almost" is because American fiddle tunes were rare in those days and even some tunes that we think of as American had their origin in the British Isles. # Posted by ceolachan 8 years ago.”
[Boring The Leather (jig)]
*Now part of The Martha’s Vineyard Museum

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