Theodosia Abrams Fisher

[1] The daughter of John Braham and Harriet Abrahams,[2] Theodosia Abrams was born into a Jewish family that probably moved to England following an Hanoverian minister to the English court.

[5] Harriett Abrams made her debut on 28 October 1775 at Drury Lane, with a piece written for her by David Garrick and music by Thomas Arne.

[2] In 1785 Theodosia and Harriett Abrams were listed as main female singers in Charles Burney's An Account of the Musical Performances in Commemoration of Handel.

Other than family members, Harriett Abrams employed leading singers and musicians: Joseph Haydn played the piano in 1792, 1794 and 1795.

John Baptist Cramer, composer and pianist, was a soloist in 1782, and said that Theodosia Abrams "could pick out a wrong note on any instrument in a full orchestre".

[5] Harriett Abrams was also a composer of glees and ballads like Orphan's Prayer and Crazy Jane, sung by her sister, Theodosia.

Theodosia Abrams abandoned a promising career upon her marriage; she was considered, with Margaret Kennedy, the leading female contralto of her time.

[5] On 6 August 1794, at St Maurice, Plympton, Theodosia Abrams married Captain Thomas Fisher (1773 – June 1810) of the Devonshire Militia.

[5] Theodosia Abrams secondly married a much younger man (by at least 19 years), Joseph Garrow, a magistrate in Torquay, on 17 March 1812 at St Margaret, Westminster.

Joseph Garrow attended St John's College, Cambridge, and practiced as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn starting in 1810.