was born in Leamington in Warwickshire where at 23 years old he was a bricklayers mate and married.  

Within 10 years he had moved to London living in Marylebone  with 7 children the oldest being ten and the youngest were two month old twins .

He was shown on the 1891 census as a banjo maker  but within two years his wife appears to have died and with 7 children he married again, moving to Maidenhead, Berkshire working from home in the market area, as a green grocer.  

By 1911 he had fathered a further nine  children and was a professional travelling musician and still living in Maidenhead .. he died in 1919.

Banjo images courtesy of Grayson Calvert, which started out as a fretless banjo