Major George Henry Benton Fletcher (22 October 1866 – 31 December 1944) was a collector of early keyboard instruments including virginals, clavichords, harpsichords, spinets and early pianos.Waitzman, Mimi. '’The Benton Fletcher Collection at Fenton House, Early Keyboard Instruments'’, p. 14. The National Trust 2003. His collection is currently housed and kept in playing condition by the National Trust in Fenton House, a late 17th century merchant's house in Hampstead, North London.
Career He was involved in social work in London slums from 1889 to 1899 with Octavia Hill and her Cadet Battalion, in a model social housing scheme in Red Cross Cottages, Southwark.Whelan, Robert, "Octavia Hill's Letters to Fellow Workers 1872–1911, Kyrle Society 2005 p 284-285, 303, 718, xliBennett, Lancelot. "Miss Octavia Hill and Cadets", Spectator, 24 August 1912 During the Second Boer War and the First World War"Obituary", Major Benton Fletcher, Times [London, England] 3 January 1945:7 he served as a railway transport officer. He assisted Professor Flinders Petrie on excavations in Egypt and Palestine by drawing archaeological finds.Flinders Petrie, W.M., Mackay, Ernest and Wainwright, Gerald, "Meydum and Memphis (111)", p.1. British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Bernard Quaritch 1910, London He became an artist, a book illustrator, a writer and a traveller,Who was who. V4. Who was who, 1941–1950: a companion to Who's who containing biographies of those who died during the decade 1941–1950, London: Adam & Charles Black, 1967 drawing King Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who had invited him to Arabia in 1921,"Rival Arabian Kingdoms: Mecca in Peril; the Hejaz Abdication." Illustrated London News [London, England] 11 October 1924: 681. Illustrated London News. Web. 5 January 2015 and made several expeditions to the Libyan, Hejaz and Sahara deserts. In 1934 he found an elegant but dilapidated Charles II town house called Old Devonshire House in Holborn. He bought, restored and furnished it with antiques and his growing collection of early keyboard instruments as a music centre for amateurs, students and professionals. He gave this and other houses and his collection of instruments to the National Trust in 1938."Preservation of Old Country Houses." Times [London, England] 9 July 1938: 17. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 7 January 2015. He became something of a social and press celebrity and raconteur giving talks on the BBC National Programme radio service in 1938-9Fletcher, Benton. "Early Music at Old Devonshire House." Listener [London, England] 6 October 1938: 713-714: the broadcast on Thursday 29 September 1938 at 20.00, was repeated on Tuesday, 20 December 1938 at 22.45 and Thursday, March 2, 1939 at 10.45. The Listener Historical Archive. Web. 4 January 2015, and early television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace featuring his stories and keyboard instruments in 1937-8.TV Script for 29 December 1937, National Trust Inventory number 3075290 Fenton HouseBBC, Alexandra Palace, Tue 23 February, 3.38. Vauxhall a masque - p 4, 5 /RT-TVS-007-72dpi.pdf His art exhibitions, early musical instrument concerts and furniture collectionOld Devonshire House, The Cabinet Maker and Complete House Furnisher, 22 January 1938Devonshire House for the Nation: The Furniture Record, The Furnisher and Hire Trade Review 24 December 1937 p120 were patronised by royalty, military and society figures.
Although he was called "the luckiest collector in the world",Evening Standard 1935, National Trust Inventory number 3075290 Fenton House he was unlucky that Old Devonshire House was totally destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid on Holborn, London in May 1941."Raid Damage In London." Times [London, England] 9 June 1941: 2. The Times Digital Archive: Web. 5 January 2015 However he had had the foresight to move most of his keyboard instruments, in January 1941, to Bourton-on-the-Hill in Gloucestershire for safe-keeping during the war and these survived with minimal damage.Lees-Milne, James, Prophesying Peace: Diaries 1944–1945, Michael Russell, 2003 p 170 (1977), Hunt, Edgar. "A Harpsichord Odyssey (11)", The English Harpsichord Magazine, vol.3, no 1, 1981.
The Early Keyboard Collection The keyboard instruments collected by Benton FletcherFletcher, Benton "The Amateur Musician" vol 111, no. 2, 1939 pp 39–44Lees-Milne, Benton Fletcher; Inventory of Furniture, pictures, Musical Instrument at Old Devonshire House, June 1940, Items marked "B" removed to the Rectory Bourton-on-the-Hill Glos 6 January 1941, National Trust, Inventory Number 3075290 include six English harpsichords from the second half of the eighteenth century. Two are from Burkat Shudi's workshop in Soho.Dale, William, Tschudi, the Harpsichord Maker, London, Constable 1913 One is a single manual model dated 1761 and the other is a double manual harpsichord, naming both Burkat Shudi and John Broadwood as makers, dated 1770. The later instrument is faced with amboyna burl wood and is among the most elaborate of late English harpsichords, featuring the Venetian swell patented by Shudi in the same year,Halfpenny, Eric. "Schudi and the "Venetian Swell", Music & Letters XXV11 1946 a machine stop, six hand-stops and a pedal action, with five notes below FF.Ripin, Edwin, "Expressive devices applied to the eighteenth century harpsichord." The Organ Yearbook (1) (1970): p65-80. Three instruments from Kirckman in London include a single manual harpsichord by Jacob Kirckman of 1752, a simple instrument with only 2 sets of 8' strings, a double manual harpsichord by Jacob Kirckman of 1762 with "book-matched" walnut veneer panels, and a double manual instrument by Jacob and Abraham Kirckman of 1777. A Longman and Broderip, a single manual harpsichord, made by Thomas Culliford dated 1783, which was the first harpsichord acquired by Benton Fletcher, includes a buff stop and a pedal machine stop.
An anonymous Italian harpsichord of about 1590 with original jacks and keyboard is unusual having only one string per note. It has two split accidentals allowing either chromatic or selected lower bass notes to be played with the front or back component of the "same" key. The interior of the lid features a painting of Moses and Aaron in an Italianate landscape.
There are two bentside spinets. One, by John Hancock, London, is of late eighteenth century origin, with a single curve to the bentside. The other is unsigned, appears to be English and may have been made in 1742. It features a wing-shaped bent-side with a double curve as well as elegant ebony accidentals with a central ivory strip.
Three of the four virginals in his collection are Italian. The oldest and lightest, dated 1540 is by Marcus Siculus of Sicily. It includes a well preserved parchment rose of extravagant tracery, and is decorated with bone studs and symmetrical floral decoration. A more robustly made virginals attributed to Vincentius PratensisWraight, Denzil "Identification and Authentication of Italian Stringed Keyboard Instruments in The Historical Harpsichord" ed. Howard Schott, Pendragon, NY 1992 was made in the late 16th or early 17th century. An unusual virginals attributed to Giovanni Celestini, Venice, also of late 16th or early 17th century construction has two rather than one string per note and a false inner-outer case,Frank Hubbard; Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making, Harvard University Press, 1970, p20 which is the custom of some Italian makers to make a case that looks as if a delicate inner instrument is lying within a protective outer case when in fact it is all one. Benton Fletcher said that he found this instrument in a cellar in Florence where it was being used as a carpenter's workbench. A late example of virginals by Robert Hatley, London, 1664, opens to reveal an inside lid and drop-down front painted with figures in 17th century dress in landscape, with applied gilt papers. There is an anonymous triple fretted German clavichord of late 17th or early 18th Century origin.
A grand piano inscribed Americus Backers, London, of the late 1770s is possibly an 18th-century "fake"; the instrument is genuine but it was probably not made by Backers. There is also a square piano of eighteenth origin by Christopher Ganer, London.
Instruments collected by Benton Fletcher and probably lost during the Luftwaffe raid on Holborn in 1941 include an early 16th-century Italian painted clavichord,Bavington Peter, The Missing Benton Fletcher Clavichord, British Clavichord Society Newsletter 2005, 33, p6-8 and two grand pianos, one by Matthew and William Stodart of 1791 and the second by Kirckman of 1803. A 16th-century portable pipe organ and a larger pipe organ of 1754 by Merlin were also lost. A third spinet is described by Edgar Hunt. If it was in the collection, it may have been lost then as well.
In Fenton House there are four keyboard instruments acquired after the death of Benton Fletcher in 1944, which are now considered as part of the collection. There is an Ioannes Ruckers harpsichord of 1612 from Antwerp enlarged in England in the 18th century belonging to the Royal Collection, formerly housed in Windsor Castle, a square piano by John Broadwood of 1774, a grand piano by John Broadwood & Son, London, of 1805Wainwright, David, Broadwood by Appointment: a History 1982, and a clavichord by Arnold Dolmetsch, Haslemere, of 1925.
Family and early life His father, John Fletcher, was a successful milliner with a shop in Newington Causeway, Southwark. He married Emily Bush, the daughter of John Bush, a builder from Blackfriars, London.1861 England census page 11 District 11, Trinity Newington, Newington, SurreyParish Register, St Mark's Kennington, 15 April 1857 Benton Fletcher was the youngest of their four children.1871 England census page 38, district 12, Merton Surrey His father died in May 1874 when he was 7National Probate Calendar, Index of Wills and Administrations, John Fletcher's last will and testament, proved London 30 September 1874 and his mother died in June 1883, when he was 16.National Probate Calendar, Index of Wills and Administrations, proved 25 July 1883 Emily Fletcher's estate was valued at £11,333. His eldest brother Sidney John Bush Fletcher became a stockbroker,1911 England census, Schedule 6, District 03, Yapton, Sussex his brother Percy George became an ironmonger with a shop at 58 High Street, Sidcup,1891 England Census p 13 District 4, Lewisham, Lewisham London and his sister Emily Jessie married a commercial traveller.Parish Register, Holy Trinity, Clapham, 18 April 1889 His unusual third Christian name, Benton, by which he came to be known, was the surname of his grandmother Elizabeth Benton, who married Thomas Fletcher in 1817."English Marriages, 1538-1973," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N6CC-DMH: accessed 4 January 2016), Thomas Fletcher and Elizabeth Benton, 10 Feb 1817; citing St. Peter's Wolverhampton, Stafford, England, reference it 3 pg 148; FHL microfilm 1,040,899. His niece Margaret, daughter of Percy George Fletcher, became an early keyboard player. She married Alec Hodsdon,England and Wales Marriage Index, 1925, Jan–Feb–Mar, Vol 29, p790 a noted maker of virginals. She gave a radio broadcast of music for the virginalsRadio Times 1099, 20 Oct 1944, p1 two months before Benton Fletcher died in 1944. She also recorded on an LP music played on early keyboard instruments in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.Hodsdon, Margaret, V&A, Vol 1 "Early Keyboard Instruments" LP Oryx 1600 EX/EX 1968 with Valda Aveling.
Octavia Hill, Cadets, Social work