10 Facts About William Crotch

William Crotch was an English composer and organist.

William Crotch was born in Norwich, Norfolk, to a master carpenter.

William Crotch appears to be fondest of solemn tunes and church musick, particularly the 104th Psalm.

William Crotch was later to observe that this experience led him to become a rather spoiled child, excessively indulged so that he would perform.

William Crotch was for a time organist at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he was later to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree.

In 1797, William Crotch became Heather Professor of Music at Oxford University, and in 1799 he acquired a doctorate in music.

William Crotch followed Malchair's style in recording the exact time and date of each of his pictures, and when he met the artist John Constable in London in 1805, he passed the habit along to the more famous artist.

William Crotch spent his last years at his son's house in Taunton, Somerset, where he died in 1847.

William Crotch was buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul in Bishop's Hull, just outside Taunton.

Two grandsons of William Crotch became eminent entomologists: George Robert Crotch and his brother William Duppa Crotch.