Theodosia Abrams

Theodosia Garrow (, previously Fisher; ca. 1770 – 4 November 1849) was an English contralto who performed with her sisters, Harriett, Eliza and Jane Abrams. She was considered, with Margaret Kennedy, the leading female contralto of her time, and abandoned a promising career upon her marriage.

Early life

The daughter of John Braham and Harriet Abrahams, All the family were interested in music and nine siblings were professional musicians. Harriett (ca. 1762–1821), Georgiana (Miss G.), Jane (ca. 1767–1814), Flora and Theodosia were singers, Eliza (born ca. 1777) was a singer and pianist, Charles and William were violinists, and David Abrahams (1775–1837) was a violinist and singer. Other siblings, John, Charlotte (born ca. 1758), who married John Lucas, and Thomas never performed in public. In 1785 Theodosia and Harriett Abrams were listed as main female singers in Charles Burney's An Account of the Musical Performances in Commemoration of Handel. He was the son of the rector of Little Torrington, North Devon, from 1773 to 1803. They had two sons, Charles (b. 1806) and Harriett Theodosia, named after Theodosia Abrams' sister. Harriett Theodosia Fisher, baptised at Plympton, Devon on 4 November 1809, died from smallpox in Florence on 12 November 1848, just seven months after she moved there to live with her sister. She is buried with her family at English Cemetery, Florence. Strangely for the time, her maid, Elizabeth Shinner (1811–1852), is buried beside her.

Theodosia Abrams secondly married a much younger man (by at least 19 years), Joseph Garrow, a magistrate in Torquay, on 17 March 1812 at St Margaret, Westminster. Joseph Garrow was born on 29 October 1789 at Fort St George, Madras, the son of Joseph Garrow, a secretary to the Commander-in-Chief for the East India Company, and an Indian woman, Sultana. He was orphaned when he was only three and raised by his father's sister, Eleanora Garrow. His grandfather was Rev. David Garrow, rector of Hadley, Middlesex, a schoolmaster for 50 years. His uncle was William Garrow, the English barrister. Joseph Garrow attended St John's College, Cambridge, and practiced as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn starting in 1810. They had one daughter, Theodosia Garrow (1816–1865), who married Thomas Adolphus Trollope (1810–1892) in April 1848 in Florence.

Harriett and Eliza Abrams lived with their sister Theodosia at the Braddons, Torquay, while instead Jane Abrams moved from Devon to London, Park Lane.

Theodosia Garrow died on 4 November 1849 in Torquay. Joseph Garrow went back to live in Florence with his daughter Theodosia Trollope, and is buried there with his daughter and stepdaughter.