ABSTRACT
Henry Fothergill Chorley was bom in Lancashire in 1808 and spent the first twenty-five years of his life in or near Liverpool. Contributing to family failings was the baneful influence of the Friends, whose bleak religion prevented his parents and his relatives on both sides of the family from enjoying life. From an early age, Chorley saw himself as ‘set apart’, hoping that his differentness would bring him a future of exciting adventure, independence from relations and Friends, and soul-satisfying artistic creativity, but fearing that it might cause others to neglect him and to leave him unprotected, unguided, and unloved. Chorley’s wistful belief that he ‘might have been’ a composer must have profoundly influenced his feelings later in life towards those who were. Chorley had become especially close to William and Hannah Rathbone’s son, Benson. When Benson lived in Swansea, and later in Geldeston, Chorley visited him.
