MISS BIGG OF BENTON'S STRATHSPEY. AKA and see "Mrs. Biggs of Newcastle's Delight," "Miss Stewart (3)." Scottish, English; Strathspey. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Miss Bigg of Benton's Strathspey" was composed by biography:Abraham Mackintosh, a fiddle-composer, dancing master and musician who lived most of his life in Edinburgh. At the end of the 18th century, however, he relocated to Newcastle-upon-Tune and established himself there as a teacher of dancing. 'Benton' in the title refers to the district of Benton, now absorbed into greater Newcastle but in Mackintosh's time it was a desirable out-of-town suburb. Located there was a manor called Little Benton, owned by the powerful William Bigge (1707-1758), a lawyer, landowner and colliery owner, whose eldest son was Thomas Charles Bigge (1739-1794). Thomas, a landowner and banker, and his wife (née Jemima Ord) had four sons and six daughters, one of whom may have been the subject of Mackintosh's strathspey. The first two and half measures correspond to "Drunken Sailor (1)."
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