William Thomas Freemantle

William Thomas Freemantle (1849-1931) was a musician, collector, author, bibliographer and teacher. Much of his work and collated materials reside in the Brotherton Library, having been purchased by Lord Brotherton. He was born in Chichester, Sussex on November 24th 1849 but moved to Sheffield as a young boy because his father, Henry J. Freemantle, purchased a music shop.

In 1866, W. T. Freemantle became an articled pupil for the Lincoln Cathedral organist, Mr. J. M. Young and went on to be appointed assistant organist for Lincoln Minster in 1870. However, he quickly returned to Sheffield to become the organist for St. Andrews Church in Sharrow, a position he kept for over 20 years. He gave his first organ recital in 1871, where he also performed two of his own compositions; ‘Andante in Ab’ and ‘Andante in Eb’. He would later go on to compose a large amount of church and organ music, but none to great critical or commercial acclaim.

As an author and bibliographer he wrote several books on local history, geography and the notable families of the region such as: ‘Templeborough: A Roman Station; Our Local Bibliography’ and ‘Sterndale Bennett and Sheffield’. He regularly contributed to the local press on these, and other, subject matters.

Freemantle also wrote an unpublished biography on Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy, which now resides in the Music Division of the Library of Congress, alongside many other Mendelssohn materials. These documents were sold to the Library of Congress by Alexander J. Symington, who was Lord Brotherton’s personal librarian.

Mendelssohn was one of Freemantle’s great passions and the reason he became a collector. Before it was sold to Lord Brotherton, Freemantle had the largest private collection of Mendelssohnia outside of the Mendelssohn family. Although it was Mendelssohn which sparked his interest in collecting, he curated a large amount of musical autographs and manuscripts by various other authors, particularly works from 18th century English composers, such as Charles Dibdin, William Croft and Benjamin Cooke and many other musical figures of the 18th and 19th century.

Much of the material Freemantle acquired and curated during his life time now forms part of the Freemantle Collection, in the Special Collections of the Brotherton Library.