Background
James Hewitt was born on June 4, 1770, in Dartmoor, England, the son of Capt. John Hewitt of the British navy.
James Hewitt was born on June 4, 1770, in Dartmoor, England, the son of Capt. John Hewitt of the British navy.
James Hewitt entered the navy but later resigned and turned to music, becoming in time the leader of the court orchestra of George III. In 1792 he appeared in New York City, and on January 25, 1793, at Corre’s Hotel, he gave his first concert. In 1797 Hewitt bought the New York branch of Carr’s Musical Repository in order to facilitate carrying on the business of publishing music, into which he had already ventured. He did not, however, give up his activity as a conductor. In 1800 he was leading his “grand band” in Corre’s Columbia Gardens, facing the Battery, and also regularly conducting “grand concerts” in the Mount Vernon Gardens in Leonard Street. In 1812 he moved to Boston, where he took charge of the music at the Federal Street Theatre. About 1818 Hewitt returned to New York.
Hewitt’s musical productivity kept pace with his activities as a conductor and publisher.
The compositions attributed to him include a “Battle Overture” (1792), in nine movements; a “Storm Overture” (1795); and a setting of Collins’ “Ode on the Passions, ” recited by John Hodgkinson at a concert of the Columbian Anacreontic Society, June II, 1795.
He was highly rated in his time, and his “Grand Sinfonie Characteristic of the Peace of the French Republic, ” played by his orchestra at Lovett’s hotel in 1802, received as much consideration from contemporary critics as the works of distinguished composers have received in a later day.
Of all his compositions, however, perhaps the most interesting, because of its political associations, is the score of Tammany or the Indian Chief (1794), the libretto of which was written by Mrs. Anne Julia Hatton, poetess of the Tammany Society. This quasiopera became a symbol of Republican protest against the Federalist party and was dubbed “wretched” or “one of the finest things of its kind” depending upon the political prejudices of its critics. Its performances were marked by stormy scenes created by “the poorer classes of mechanics and clerks who would be much better employed on any other occasion than disturbing a theatre. ”
In 1790 James Hewitt married a Miss Lamb, who died in 1791. In December 1795 he was married to Eliza King, the daughter of Sir John King of the British navy.