Joseph Henry Wadsworth (June 2, 1841–February 1900) was part of the world of Gilbert and Sullivan in the Gilded Age. He was elected to The Lambs as a Professional Non-Resident member sometime after 1875, and his life ended tragically in 1900.
He came from a very old Boston family, and was born and raised in South Duxbury. He was a relative of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
He made his professional debut as a teenager. Wadsworth was a longtime musician in Boston. He played in multiple bands for decades, including Brown’s Brigade, Gilmore’s, and the Germania Band. Wadsworth played the coronet and violin in orchestras for more than forty years. He also was a composer, but never reached a level of popular success.
Wadsworth was the American agent and publisher for Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and his Maid (1888) and The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria (1889). This was in the era before international copyright law, and Wadsworth was brought to London by talent agent Richard D’Oyly Carte to secure the rights in the U.S. to prevent piracy. Carte was a member of The Lambs club in London.
Wadsworth was married for eight years to Margaret Myers Wadsworth until her early death. He married again, to Katherine Hight Wadsworth, and they had four young children between the ages of three and eight years before his mysterious death.
The end of his life was tragic. His family said that Wadsworth was in an accident with an electric streetcar and landed on his head, and this left him mentally imbalanced. A week later, February 25, 1900, was the last time he was seen alive, at his home in Roxbury. Family and police searched for weeks. His body was found by a police boat in Boston Harbor on May 13; Wadsworth was identified by letters that were still in his pockets. He was 58 years old.
—Researched by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, Shepherd of The Lambs.