James Oswald

James Oswald (1710–1769) was a Scottish composer, arranger, cellist, and music publisher, who was appointed as Chamber Composer for King George III and also wrote and published many Scottish folk tunes. Life Oswald was born in Crail, Scotland in 1710, being baptised on 21 March, and died in Knebworth, Hertfordshire on 2 January 1769. As a young man he worked in Dunfermline, Fife as a musician and dancing master. Throughout his career he maintained an interest in traditional Scottish music, but he also composed in classical style galant forms. In 1741 he left Edinburgh, eloping to London with Mary Ann Melvill. The poet Allan Ramsay lamented his departure in "An Epistle to James Oswald". The couple had their first child in 1742 and married on 12 February 1744 in St. James's Church, Piccadilly. They had three daughters. In London Oswald eventually set up his own publishing house and published the Caledonian Pocket Companion, a collection of Scottish folk tunes, some with his own variations. This ran to 12 volumes and many editions. Like many others whose works feature in the Wighton Collection in Dundee, he was a member of "The Temple of Apollo", a secret musical society of composers in London along with Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, John Reid, Charles Burney and others.