Ernest Reinhold (Again)

Readers will remember Lewis Spence's assertion (undocumented), that Emma wrote music, music criticism, or both, under the name of Ernest Reinhold in the period between her father's death in 1834 and her move to the US in 1855.

I've now found five more traces of Ernest Reinhold, or E. Reinhold, publishing music in the period 1849 to 1852.

First item of interest: every one of these snippets is from the Bristol Mercury, and notices of Ernest Reinhold, or E. Reinhold, appear nowhere else but the Mercury in the British Library's newspaper database.

Second item of interest: the link to Francis Henry F. Berkeley, Liberal member of Parliament for Bristol, to whom one of the pieces is dedicated, and who is obviously promoting Reinhold's work.

Third item of interest: the dedication "with permission" of another piece to the Duke of Beaufort.

So let's assume that Lewis Spence knew something we do not -- even if he did garble what he knew -- and that Emma = Ernest Reinhold.

The first item of interest -- mentioned only in Bristol -- makes sense. Emma's ties to the Bristol musical performance scene I've already touched on; it's where her career was launched.

The link between Emma and Francis Henry F. Berkeley is a bit difficult to dig out, but we can find it in this passage on Berkeley's initial election in Bristol, in 1837, from John Latimer's Annals of Bristol (1887):

At the general election in July, caused by the demise of the king, the two Conservative members of the previous Parliament retired into private life....The Liberal Party selected the Hon. Francis Henry F. Berkeley. After an exciting contest, the poll was declared on the 25th July, as follows: Mr. Miles, 2828; Mr. Berkeley, 3312; Mr. Fripp, 3156. In lieu of the old ceremony of chairing, the Liberals celebrated their victory by a procession of the trades of the city, in which some thousands of artisans took part. A petition against the return of Mr. Berkeley was presented on behalf of (Mr. Fripp). It alleged extensive bribery and treating, and further affirmed that certain agents of Mr. Berkeley, being also Charity Trustees, had been openly guilty of corruption and undue influence, bu giving or promising charity gifts in order to secure votes against Mr. Fripp.

Readers may recall that the Charity Trustees employ Ann Sophia Floyd at about this time.

And if that connection's not strong enough, there's this: Francis Henry F. Berkeley was intimately connected with the London theatre, and with the Royal General Theatrical Fund, as were (dum-de-dum-dum) Edward Bulwer (Lytton) and Charles Dickens.

I cannot find, as yet, a connection between Emma and Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, one-time Lord of the Admiralty, and High Steward of Bristol (horse racing and theatre enthusiast), to whom E. Reinhold dedicated "with permission" the ballad "Oh bid me live". But Somerset was more than a bit of a rake, and it appears that Somerset served in the lower house of Parliament, as member for Gloucestershire West, with the Honorable George Berkeley, who I believe was the elder brother of FHF Berkeley.