first appearance in public as a singer at a concert of his own at Liverpool, 5 May 1842. He first appeared in opera as Oroveso in ‘Norma’ at Dublin on 2 July 1842, and subsequently became a useful member of the Pyne and Harrison and other opera companies. He was distinguished as a concert-singer, but he specially excelled as an exponent of oratorio music, in which his artistic feeling and rich voice found full means of expression. His first appearance at a festival was at Gloucester in 1844.
Weiss's chief claim to distinction rests upon being the composer of ‘The Village Blacksmith,’ set to Longfellow's words, a song which has had and still retains an extraordinary popularity. He composed it about 1854. He offered the copyright to a firm of music publishers for the sum of 5l., and, upon their declining to accept it on those terms, Weiss published the song on his own account, with the result that it brought to him and his descendants an annual income of no inconsiderable amount for upwards of forty years.
Weiss, who was of a genial, lovable disposition, died at St. George's Villa, Regent's Park, 24 Oct. 1867, and is buried in Highgate cemetery. He married, 15 Sept. 1845, Georgina Ansell Barrett (1826–1880), a native of Gloucester, who was favourably known as a singer. By her he left a daughter. In addition to ‘The Village Blacksmith’ Weiss composed many other songs and ballads, and arranged a pianoforte edition of Weber's Mass in G.
[Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, iv. 433; Musical World, 26 Oct. and 2 Nov. 1867; Gent. Mag. 1867, ii. 828; private information from his grandson, W. W. Graham, esq.]
WEIST-HILL, THOMAS HENRY (1828–1891), musician, son of Thomas Hill, goldsmith and freeman of the city, was born in London on 3 Jan. 1828. He showed an early taste for the violin, and, after appearing at Gravesend as an ‘infant prodigy,’ he in 1844 entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Prosper Philippe Catherine Sainton [q. v.], and in 1845 took the king's scholarship. He was subsequently a professor of the violin at the academy, and conducted its choir and orchestra. On leaving the institution he attached himself to the orchestra of the Princess Theatre, but he soon became known as a concert violinist, and was taken up first by Edward James Loder [q. v.], and then by Louis Antoine Julien or Jullien [q. v.] With the latter he toured in America, where he was the first to make known Mendelssohn's violin concerto, and later visited the principal continental cities. Returning to London, he was engaged as first violin by (Sir) Michael Costa [q. v.], under whom he played for many years in the Opera, Philharmonic, and Sacred Harmonic societies' orchestras. On the opening of the Alexandra Palace in 1873 he was appointed musical director, and in that capacity did good service by bringing forward new compositions by native writers, as well as by reviving forgotten works, such as Handel's ‘Esther’ and ‘Susanna.’ In 1878 he conducted the orchestral concerts of Madame Viard-Louis, at which several important works were heard for the first time in England. He was appointed principal of the Guildhall School of Music in 1880, and held that post till his death at South Kensington on 26 Dec. 1891. He was an admirable violinist and an able administrator. He wrote a few compositions, mostly for violin and 'cello, of which the ‘Pompadour Gavotte’ became popular.
[Musical Opinion, January 1885; Lute, March 1891 (portrait); Musical Herald (portrait) and Musical Times, February 1892; Brown and Stratton's British Musical Biography; information from the son, Ferdinand Weist-Hill, esq.]
WELBY, HENRY (d. 1636), ‘The Phœnix of these late Times,’ was the eldest son of Adlard Welby (d. 11 Aug. 1570) of Gedney in Lincolnshire, by his first wife, the daughter of an inhabitant of Hull named Hall. He was matriculated as a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 24 May 1558, and was made a student of the Inner Temple in November 1562, ‘where, being accommodated with all the parts of a gentleman, hee after retyred himself into the countrye,’ purchasing the estate of Goxhill in Lincolnshire from Lord Wentworth. Wishing to enlarge his mind by travel, he ‘spent some few yeares in the Lowe Countreys, Germany, France, and Italy, making the best use of his time.’
In this manner Welby continued his blameless life until past middle age. About 1592 his younger brother, John, a dissolute youth, took umbrage at Henry's endeavours to reform his habits, and, after repeatedly threatening his life, attempted to shoot him with a pistol. Welby was deeply affected by this villainy, and, taking ‘a very faire house in the lower end of Grub Street, near unto Cripplegate,’ he passed the rest of his life in absolute seclusion, never leaving his apartments or seeing any living creature except his old maid-servant Elizabeth. In this manner he lived for forty-four years in the
