--- title: "Musicians in the family: Part Three" description: The Nathaniel Ilsley family of Portland, Maine (and later Chelsea, Massachusetts; Buffalo and Troy, New York; and Newark, New Jersey) produced more than a dozen singers, violinists, conductors – and a image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Arthur_Foote_-_American_composer-1.jpg --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Musicians in the family: Part Three [August 18, 2014](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/08/musicians-in-the-family-3) [Critical Analysis](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis), [Research Methods](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods), [A Genealogist's Diary](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/a-genealogists-diary), [Object Lessons](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons), [Family stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories) [Scott C. Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/ssteward) [![Arthur Foote](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Arthur_Foote_-_American_composer-1.jpg?width=200&height=289&name=Arthur_Foote_-_American_composer-1.jpg)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Arthur_Foote_-_American_composer-1.jpg) Arthur Foote (1853-1937) The Nathaniel Ilsley family of Portland, Maine (and later Chelsea, Massachusetts; Buffalo and Troy, New York; and Newark, New Jersey) produced more than a dozen singers, violinists, and conductors – and at least two composers. One of these last was my great-great-grandfather, Francis Grenville Ilsley (1831–1887), and the other was his younger brother, Eliphalet Clark Ilsley (1837–1866). Frank (or Grenville) wrote at least two hymn tunes that are still in general use – *Ilsley* and *Dania* – while Clark (or Clarke) ventured South and spent the Civil War years as the [choirmaster](http://www.saintpauls.org/music/music-directors/) of St. Paul’s Church in Augusta, Georgia. Uncle Clark was probably named for Dr. Eliphalet Clark of Portland (1801–1883), a contemporary of his father Francis Lunt Ilsley (1804–1874). He appears at an early age in Charles H. Kaufman’s *Music in New Jersey, 1655–1860 *(1981), [performing](http://books.google.com/books?id=OHJB9FQIEsgC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=%22clark+ilsley+newark&source=bl&ots=2q2FCP9y--&sig=hkJf5UCYbwonUQQUabBwFSvPyPE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FJfGU43HJ4eOyATYtIDIDw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22clark%20ilsley%20newark&f=false) in Newark between 1854 and 1859. The earliest composition by E. Clarke Ilsley I’ve been able to find is [The Yankee Privateer](https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/15652), published by Oliver Ditson & Co. in 1854. In January 1855, *Musical World* noted Ditson’s recent publication of [two songs](http://books.google.com/books?id=pN0qAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=%22e+c+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=FU9KUdLIqn&sig=HueCcaagrhnW_SVBWMkpV5dpwOQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cD_EU9G3Cs6jyAS9oIG4Aw&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22e%20c%20ilsley%22&f=false) by E. C. Ilsley: *Belle of the Year* and *Helen May*.  A year later, he can be found in Manhattan in association with his uncle Ferdinand Ingersoll Ilsley (1808–1890), who later sold pianos from [a shop on Broome Street](http://books.google.com/books?id=EjYjD4vQbCYC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=%22e+c+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=l4vG-yKRWo&sig=ub0fdoDedU74wGibYAhesEV0iqA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cD_EU9G3Cs6jyAS9oIG4Aw&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22e%20c%20ilsley%22&f=false), but by 1860 E. C. Ilsley was teaching music in Syracuse. I have to think E. C. Ilsley and E. Clarke Ilsley the same man, so how and why did Uncle Clark end up in Augusta during the Civil War? He was evidently an industrious composer as well as a choirmaster for St. Paul’s Church, turning out songs like [Kiss Me Before I Die, Mother](http://books.google.com/books?id=B2tNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=%22clarke+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=jUjoy9Zbsz&sig=_q5_Z_UWaN3dOvDkBAMNNK1BoH4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3kHEU8vNKsyuyATj0oDQAw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=%22clarke%20ilsley%22&f=false), advertised in the *Southern Cultivator* as “the gem song of the times” and retailing for $1; [The Soldier’s Suit of Gray](http://books.google.com/books?id=4qNjmjiQemsC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=%22clarke+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=XyY5SkvIbc&sig=q9wtO84iVTni8fyaUtIiXTOoSAo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7kDEU4GwGJOjyASGwIHoBg&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22clarke%20ilsley%22&f=false); [How Can I leave Thee?](http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb2584606); and [Yes, We Think of Thee at Home](http://books.google.com/books?id=jrITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=%22clarke+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=HR2lES1Lgi&sig=fKSgh12NFo4TMs5jm_oeH7q4Qsc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7kDEU4GwGJOjyASGwIHoBg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22clarke%20ilsley%22&f=false), an answer to *Do They Think of Me at Home?* and dedicated to Miss Letty Yonge. Though he died in 1866, E. Clarke Ilsley’s publisher Blackmar brought out (or perhaps reissued) [My Love, my last thoughts are of thee ](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.sm1883.02510/default.html)in 1883. The poet Grenville Mellen (1799–1841) was probably F. G. Ilsley’s namesake; like F. L. Ilsley and Eliphalet Clark, Mellen was a prominent figure in the Portland of 1830. While all of Frank Ilsley’s siblings appear in Kaufman’s *Music in New Jersey, 1655–1860*, he does not; for that matter, unlike E. Clarke Ilsley Frank was slow to publish his works, and all of the ones I’ve been able to trace date from the 1870s and 1880s, following his marriage. Beginning in the late 1870s, by now the father of two sons, F. G. Ilsley began to publish his compositions at a brisk clip: [Sleep, O! Sleep](http://140.147.249.5/diglib/ihas/search?query=ilsley&start=12&view=text&sort=titlesort&label=) (1877; perhaps for his son Beekman, born in 1873?); [Gavotte](http://core.kmi.open.ac.uk/display/14119292) (1881, the year my great-grandmother was born); [Though Lost, Yet Loved!](http://140.147.249.5/diglib/ihas/loc.music.sm1882.09534/default.html) and [Why the Cows Came Late](http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/materials/display.asp?id=330) (1882); [Sweet Love and I](http://140.147.249.5/diglib/ihas/search?query=ilsley&start=12&view=text&sort=titlesort&label=) (1883); [Softly Now the Light of Day](http://140.147.249.5/diglib/ihas/search?query=ilsley&start=12&view=text&sort=titlesort&label=) (1885); and [There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy](http://moclin.jp/hymnal/index-e.html) (1887). F. G. Ilsley also appeared in concerts as a pianist, as at a *musicale* in Newark in January 1886, when he played two works by Arthur Foote. Nicholas E. Tawa’s biography of the composer (*Arthur Foote: A Musician in the Frame of Time and Place* [1997]) quotes a letter from Ilsley to Foote about the concert’s “instant success… The ‘Gavotte’ is strongly written and while quaint & old fashioned in a way, leans decidedly to the modern advanced school – The ‘Eclogue’ I especially fancy.” (p. 155) When Ilsley died in 1887, his obituary in *The Bloomfield Citizen* (2 April 1887) called him “the well-known music teacher” and [noted](http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Bloomfield%20NJ%20Citizen/Bloomfield%20NJ%20Citizen%201889/Bloomfield%20NJ%20Citizen%201889%20-%200126.pdf) that he left a widow, two sons, and a daughter. Two weeks later, *The American Register* in London [recorded](http://newspaperarchive.com/uk/middlesex/london/london-american-register/1887/04-16/page-7) the death of “Mr. Frank G. Ilsley, a well-known musician of Newark, [who] died in that city March 30th, at about forty-five years of age. He was a musician from his boyhood, and played in many churches in New York and Newark.” My great-great-grandmother Mrs. F. G. Ilsley (Emily Anne Finlay, born in 1848) died in 1895, leaving her sons Beekman and Francis, Jr., and her daughter Sara Theodora Ilsley. I find no evidence of Frank and Emily Ilsley having been divorced, and she seemingly appears as his widow in that 1887 obituary, so who is the Mrs. F. G. Ilsley, “as the widow of the author,” renewing the copyright on Ilsley’s [Down on the Sands](http://books.google.com/books?id=ijHQAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA1099&lpg=RA3-PA1099&dq=%22mrs+f+g+ilsley%22&source=bl&ots=iQv5Rm1SqK&sig=yztJ5VZ9J3Lr2RhMOhqtHBlUCBc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x63GU6GHHMqsyAT8tIG4CA&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22mrs%20f%20g%20ilsley%22&f=false) in 1909? Another [family mystery](http://vita-brevis.org/2014/06/another-family-mystery/), evidently! *The series concludes *[here](http://vita-brevis.org/2014/08/musicians-in-the-family-4/). ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/08/musicians-in-the-family-3](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/08/musicians-in-the-family-3) - - - More - - ![Scott C. Steward](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported%20images/f0ca00236a2eb95f2a42a6692ce1ee9c%3Fs=96%26d=identicon%26r=g.jpeg) ## About Scott C. Steward Scott C. Steward has been NEHGS’ Editor-in-Chief since 2013. He is the author, co-author, or editor of genealogies of the Ayer, Le Roy, Lowell, Saltonstall, Thorndike, and Winthrop families. His articles have appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, NEXUS, New England Ancestors, American Ancestors, and The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, and he has written book reviews for the Register, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.[View all posts by Scott C. Steward →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/ssteward) [← Musicians in the family: an afterword](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/08/musicians-in-the-family-4) [Like father, like son - like daughter? →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2014/08/like-father-like-son-like-daughter) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ### Recent Posts [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) [The Norwegian folge](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/the-norwegian-folge) [Research…in a Miniskirt? A ‘Style Guide’ to a Genealogist’s Wardrobe](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/research-in-a-miniskirt-a-style-guide-to-a-genealogists-wardrobe) ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11) ### Categories - [Family stories (1260)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories) - [American History (1137)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history) - [Critical Analysis (1126)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis) - [Research Methods (881)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods) - [Brick Walls (674)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/brick-walls) - [Object Lessons (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons) - [Spotlight (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/spotlight) - [Genealogical Writing (554)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/genealogical-writing) - [Research tips (510)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-tips) - [Serendipity (479)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/serendipity) - [Road Trips (393)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) ### Recent Posts [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) [The Norwegian folge](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/the-norwegian-folge) [Research…in a Miniskirt? A ‘Style Guide’ to a Genealogist’s Wardrobe](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/research-in-a-miniskirt-a-style-guide-to-a-genealogists-wardrobe) ### Meta - [Log in](https://vita-brevis.org/wp-login.php) - [Entries RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/feed/) - [Comments RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/comments/feed/) - [WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/) ### Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11)