MASCALL [Maskall], Elizabeth (Wadd) (b Enfield, Middlesex, c 1831; d 11 Norland Square, Holland Park, London, 6 April 1893)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century singing sisters (Elizabeth Mascall and Mary Mascall). The singing sisters – who have, usually, been considered to have been legitimately Mascall, or indeed Maskell, but were, in fact, properly Maskall – were actually sisters. It was in March 1852, like so many young singers of their period, and like those other 'singing sister' acts the Misses Cole and the Misses Brougham, they were given their first significant opportunity, by Joseph Stammers. It took a season or two for the Mascalls to set their feet on the path to prosperity, although the nature of their initial concert – give or take Belletti and Miss Birch – had rather pointed the way things would go. Joseph Edwards Carpenter and his songwriting partners turned out regular supplies of new songs for Elizabeth and Mary, and 'as sung by the Misses Mascall' became a familiar legend on the ballad music sheets of the 1850s.