Andrew Lloyd Webber climbs a family tree filled with Duchesses, plumbers and circus performers
Did you think Andrew Lloyd Webber was quite posh? He did. But he was tickled to learn he’s posher than he thought in the first of a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One). Turns out that, on his mother’s side, the most commercially successful composer of all time – his revived Aspects of Love is again beguiling audiences in London’s West End – is related to General Sir Peregrine Maitland, who was given a knighthood for skilfully commanding troops at the Battle of Waterloo.
Digging even further back on his maternal line, historians revealed his 12x great grandmother, Katherine Willoughby, had married the Duke of Suffolk. But the circumstances were unsavoury, as the Duke had bought her wardship from Henry VIII for the modern equivalent of £1.1million while she was still a child. “So she was sold?” baulked Lloyd Webber, whose concern intensified on learning that the Duke had married his new ward six years after he’d bought her, and within three months of his previous wife’s death. He was 49, Katherine was 14.
But Katherine seems to have been a strong character, and a formidable one at that (you can see why Lloyd Webber wouldn’t have wanted to live with her, but would have loved to have met her): she named her dog after a powerful local clergyman she didn’t like and, following the Duke’s death, married a clever servant (Lloyd Webber’s 12x great grandfather). As Protestants, the pair were forced to flee to the continent during the reign of Queen Mary I (a Catholic) – a reminder that refugees, fearing an intolerant regime, were once driven from our shores in small boats. Katherine had a son (the first of the many Peregrines, a name meaning ‘wanderer’) and, after returning to England, enjoyed a long and apparently happy later life.
Interesting enough, thought Lloyd Webber, but where did the Musical Genius genes come from? It turned out to be on his working-class father’s side. Climbing the family tree beyond a singing plumber of a grandfather and an East End missionary, the composer discovered he was descended from a circus family called the Magitos. They included rope dancers and a 6x great uncle who’d been a virtuoso cellist and composer of six recorded cello sonatas and some lost concertos.
A fascinating tour all told, without the usual theatrical emoting over ancient documents. Hats off to Lloyd Webber for keeping the past in perspective.
