Charles Taws

Biography

Charles Taws arrived in New York from Scotland in 1785 (elsewhere given as 1786) and supported himself for a time by tuning harpsichords and pianos and, in 1787, by teaching in a private school. In 1788 he moved to Philadelphia and soon began manufacturing pianofortes in a modest way; the historian J. J. Watson saw one of his instruments in 1795, though city directory listings indicate he was already working as a musical instrument maker by 1792-93. The Scottish poet and ornithologist Alexander Wilson recalled spending pleasant hours with an ingenious Scottish pianoforte-maker in Philadelphia in 1797 who reportedly devised a change to the shape of the pianoforte and sent examples to Paris and London; Spillane identifies this figure as Taws. Around 1800 Taws became associated with the theatre director Reinagle, and in 1801 the two men inspected architectural and acoustic plans for Joseph Corré's Mount Vernon Gardens playhouse. Taws worked at a succession of Philadelphia addresses (60 Walnut, 61 and 63 South Third, 115 Pine, 74 and 73 Union) until his name vanishes from the directory in 1833, indicating he died around that year. His sons, James B. Taws and Lewis Taws, later carried on as an instrument maker and organ-builder respectively.

Highlights

• Emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1785 and began manufacturing pianofortes in Philadelphia by 1788.
• Alexander Wilson recalled him as an ingenious Scottish pianoforte-maker who devised a new pianoforte shape sent to Paris and London.
• Inspected acoustic plans for Joseph Corré's playhouse with Reinagle in 1801; his sons James B. Taws and Lewis Taws later worked in the same trades.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 73, 77, 78, 79, 80.

Public domain.