Geoffrey Stafford

Biography

Geoffrey Stafford was a London lute- and fiddle-maker of disreputable character who was transported to Massachusetts as a convict around 1691 under order of King William's government, along with roughly two hundred other exiled criminals. Though nominally a craftsman, he led a gang that turned to freebooting near Albany, New York, terrorizing the frontier and raiding Mohawk settlements. Massachusetts's governor, Fletcher, admired Stafford's violin playing enough to summon him to New York, grant him a military commission, and receive a violin Stafford made especially for him. During a drunken visit, Stafford killed Fletcher's favorite body-servant with the governor's own sword and then menaced Fletcher himself, ending the relationship. He continued intermittently making violins and lutes but was eventually hanged by a Dutchman after committing a robbery. Spillane notes Stafford is credited with making some of the first violins produced in colonial Massachusetts, and that some descendants later claimed Mayflower ancestry.

Highlights

• London lute- and fiddle-maker transported to Massachusetts as a convict around 1691, credited with making some of the first violins in colonial Massachusetts.
• Led a gang of freebooters near Albany, made a violin for Governor Fletcher, and killed Fletcher's body-servant during a drunken episode.
• Was eventually hanged by a Dutchman after committing a robbery.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 74, 75.

Public domain.