Blues Man

F&I No. 11: Jimmy Tittle
From Bluesweb; website of Dixiefrog records:
Jimmy Tittle has been involved with music most of his life as a musician, songwriter, singer and performer. At the age of eighteen he was fortunate enough to experience first-hand the enormous talents of Merle Haggard, as a member of his touring and recording band, “The Strangers”. Jimmy recognized immediately the genius of Haggard’s songwriting and considered him to be the quintessential writer of working class poetry. Jimmy toured and performed with Merle for the next five years playing bass guitar, earning him six Super Picher awards as well as The Academy Of Country Music’s Touring Band Of The Year award four consecutive years.
Jimmy left the Strangers to pursue songwriting and formed a country band with Ricky Frizzell and Danny Husky, the sons of two legendary “Honky Tonk” heroes, Lefty Frizzell and Ferlin Husky. The band toured the south extensively gaining a large following until a tragic accident took the life of Danny Husky. Jimmy returned to Nashville and worked as a session musician while continuing to write.
In 1982, Jimmy was invited to join the cast of another legendary performer, Johnny Cash. They traveled the world over the next seven years. Jimmy participated in numerous television specials and soundtrack albums, and has small acting roles in a film and several music videos. Jimmy left The Johnny Cash Show in 1989 to pursue an independent career in writing, recording and performing.
Bug Music in Nashville signed Jimmy in 1989 to an exclusive songwriter’s agreement and soon had his songs recorded by artists such as Jann Browne, Johnny Cash, Evangeline, Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. “On The Surface” was co-written by Jimmy and Rosanne which she recorded on her critically acclaimed album, “Interiors”. Jimmy has also co-written songs with : Mary Stuart, John Hiatt, John Stewart, LeRoy Preston, Dave Alvin, Cindy Bullens and Rodney Crowell.
Dixiefrog Records in Paris / France contacted Jimmy and he signed a recording contract which introduced him to the European market with his two first album in 1990 (“Jimmy Tittle”) and 91 (“Fade to black”). Sony Music France released his third CD titled “Real Life” as well as a compilation of all previous works titled “Rooms Full Of Money, Heart Full Of Pain”.
Jimmy’s works with Sony Music helped him to reach a broader audience in Europe. His records are released in France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia. Jimmy’s current CD “It’s In The Attitude” was released March 15, 1995 on Dixiefrog and is attracting the attention of an even larger audience.
His blending of Country, roots and southern Rock and Roll music is the result of many miles, powerful influences, and most importantly... heart and soul.
Jimmy is married to Johnny Cash’s daughter Kathy and was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral in 2003.

Tittle Cott or is it Tickle Cock?

From the Yorkshire Post 11 March 2006
Residents cock-a-hoop after winning fight to keep saucy underpass name
Joanne GinleyRESIDENTS have launched a successful campaign to save a saucily-named underpass after they got an inkling a name change was being mooted to spare people's blushes.
Planners wanted to change Tickle Cock Bridge to Tittle Cott Bridge as part of a regeneration scheme being filmed for a Channel 4 TV series.But residents in Castleford stood up as one, criticised planners for their modesty and said: "We want our Tickle Cock back."Brian Lewis, who chaired a residents' meeting, said: "It's part of our heritage and we want to keep the name."With all the sex on television before the 9pm watershed anyway we can't understand why the architects were being so coy."The railway underpass in the town centre has been called Tickle Cock by locals for at least a century and dates back to Victorian times. It is thought the name refers to a "monkey run" where the lads and lasses of Castleford did their courting.Painter David Prudhoe, 58, said: "It's been called Tickle Cock Bridge since way before I was born."Others may think it is rude but locals are not offended by the name. We don't need a new name, it has already got a fine one."Everybody wants to keep the name. I think it's a laugh. It is a nice name and we don't want the name changing. "Imagine the uproar nationally if some faceless committee decided to change the name of the Traitor's Gate in London. There would be an outcry."Mr Lewis, a local historian who works for the Regional Development Agency, said: "The district council had instructed the architects designing the project that the bridge was called Tittle Cott and that appeared on the plans."I was horrified. It is another example of the nanny state telling us something we don't want to do. "They apparently fear the sexual innuendo of the name yet for generations local people have been using the name without thinking."He added: "It dates back to the late 19th Century or early 20th Century and would function in the same way as any 'monkey run' where you paraded up and down trying to find a boyfriend or girlfriend."It is part of our history and it is not the right of council officers to impose on the population what they think is politically correct."The people of Castleford do not want Tickle Cock Bridge renamed."Mr Lewis said he now understood that the locals would get their wish and Tickle Cock Bridge would be kept.The Castleford project is a regeneration scheme in-volving Channel 4, Wakefield Council and other partners.A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: "Some people call it Tickle Cock Bridge and others say Tittle Cott. There is no plan to rechristen the underpass."
You can find out more about the plans for the bridge at the Castleford Project website.

Tittle Hall

The arrow points to Tittle Hall Cottages in Boxted, Suffolk, England
Presumably Tittle Hall itself no longer exists, but there is a story associated with it to be found here. Any further information gratefully received.

Resting places

The Tittle Cemetery near Lynn, Winston County, Alabama Tittle Cemetery, Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee
Tittle Cemetery is located on the side of Elder Mountain in the Lookout Valley/Tiftonia area of Chattanooga. It lies off Cash Canyon Road on private property belonging to William Foster. It is a family cemetery believed to have been established by David Tittle. Further information here.
Anyone know of any more?

War Hero

F&I No. 10: Captain John Moore Tittle.
An ancestor of mine, Captain Tittle was born on 17th July 1792 at the family seat of Farmhill, Coleraine in the far North of Ireland. His father, also John Tittle was a member of the Corporation of Coleraine for 40 years and was appointed Prothonotary (a sort of clerk of the court, with the power to affix the seal of the court on documents) and Landwaiter (I think this is a sort of customs officer; derived from ‘landing waiter’).
At the age of 17 John Tittle served in the 38th Regiment as part of the Walcheren expedition. This was a military expedition during the Napoleonic wars to try and seize the port of Antwerp. Unfortunately, due to poor leadership, it got bogged down (literally) on the marshy island of Walcheren, with many of the soldiers catching malaria. Two years later Captain Tittle saw active service in the Peninsular War. This was a war in which British and Portuguese forces, under Wellington, fought against Napoleon’s forces in the Iberian Peninsular (Spain and Portugal). Captain Tittle took part in the storming of Badagoz, the battle of Salamanca, various skirmishes on the retreat from Burgos, action at Osma, the battle of Vitoria, the siege of San Sebastian and the investment of Bayonnne. At the siege of San Sebastian he acted as an engineer and was severely wounded on 31st August while showing a ford to Col James of the Portuguese service. He received the war medal with four classes.
At 27 he was serving in South Africa as commando through what was then known as Cafferland. Earlier the British had taken advantage of the fact that the Dutch were temporarily indisposed (being overrun by Napoleon’s forces) and taken possession of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope. They declined to give it back after the war. As a concession to the Dutch colonists the British, for a while, let them have their own ‘parliament’ called the Burgher Senate. On 11th March 1820 Captain Tittle married Johanna Catherine Vos, daughter of James Vos Esq., president of the Burgher Senate. Their first daughter, Anne, was born on the Cape in 1821 and they then returned to Farmhill where their second daughter, Johanna Catherine, was born in 1823. A son, John Moore followed in 1824. However, four months after giving birth to their forth child, James, in 1826 Johanna Catherine died.
In 1834 the Captain served as Mayor of Coleraine for a year.
In 1844 John Moore remarried, this time to Sophia Hardy of Loughgall, Co Armagh and he was widowed for a second time in 1863. He died on 5th September 1874.

Tittle Row

Tittle Places: Tittle Row, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England
Once a separate hamlet (see map left) but now a neighbourhood on the edge of Maidenhead (see map below). Derivation unfortunately unknown.
The name Tittle Row was also given to a small street in Coventry, England for a period in the middle of the eighteenth century. The street had previously been known, and is now know, as Ironmonger Row (see below). The reasons for the change to Tittle Row are unknown. I hope it was a bit nicer when it was know as Tittle Row.

Tittle = Tickle

In Black Country dialect the word tickle is pronounced "tittle".
For readers unfamiliar with this part of the world: the Black Country is the large industrial (or perhaps now post-industrial) conurbation to the west of Birmingham, in central England.
In an earlier comment Edgar Gregor told us...
In the Frodsham area of Cheshire the name is sometimes spelled "Tickle" in the parish registers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Edinburgh Art Student

F&I 9: Robina Tittle
The picture shows students in a life class at Edinburgh College of Art somewhere between 1911 and 1916. The one sitting on the floor is Robina Tittle. Robina (born March 1887) was a student at the Trustees Academy School of Art from 1905 before joining the Edinburgh College of Art as one of its first students in October 1908. She was awarded a Minor Travelling Bursary of £15 in the 1911-1912 session and was awarded a diploma in drawing and Painting at the end of the 1913-1914 session. These photographs show a more relaxed side to student and staff life at the College early in the last century. [Information taken from Trustees Academy School of Art Student records and Edinburgh College of Art Student records.]

God keep our tittle

I found this on the web some time ago. No idea what it is about.

Sentenced to death for burglary

From the proceedings at the Old Bailey 11th January 1717:
William Tittle , of Marybone, was indicted for breaking the House of William Taswell in the Night time on the 16th of December last, and stealing thence a stuff Ridinghood value 12 s. and other Goods . The Prosecutor's Wife deposed, That her House was broke open, and the Goods stoln. The Watchman deposed, he seeing the Prisoner have the Goods suspected him, and upon Examination he own'd where he had stoln them. The Prisoner had little to say in his Defence. The Jury therefore brought him in Guilty of the Indictment.
He was sentenced to death. However we are assured that many, in fact most, death sentences at this time were not carried out. Through benefit of clergy, use of pardons, and respited sentences due to pregnancy or in order to perform military or naval duty, many of those sentenced to death were not actually executed. Since these mitigations often took place after the Proceedings were published, this information is usually not included in the trial texts, though it sometimes can be found in the texts for subsequent sessions.

Steve the Composer

F & I No. 8: STEVE TITTLE
Steve Tittle was born May 20, 1935 in Ohio. After his school years as a trumpet player in concert and jazz bands, and four years as a U.S. Navy musician, he studied music education and composition at Kent State University. Following three years of school music teaching he went on to study composition at the University of Wisconsin and he has received the degrees Master of Music (1966) and Doctor of Musical Arts (1974) from that institution.
Since 1970 Tittle has taught in the Music Department of Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he was the founder/director of the Experimental Sound Studio and the experimental-music group Murphy's Law, with its ongoing series of concerts since 1974. He was a founding member (1972) of the Halifax new-music organization inNOVAtions in MUSIC, and served as its artistic director from 1982-86. He has also given concerts and produced an LP as a solo performer (with tape) under the name (one of the) merely players. Since 1990 he has been a member of the new Halifax composer/performer-collective UPSTREAM, for which he continues to compose new (and re-arrange older) music.
In addition to his many works in the standard concert-music genres, Tittle has often composed for tape/live combinations, jazz groups, radio plays, dance and theatre productions, and other collaborations, He has also scored several documentary films (for the NFB and others) and has done arranging for everything from small groups to full orchestra.
Tittle feels that his style has been influenced by nearly everything in his background, including jazz and various non-European musics. Striving for a balance between structural clarity and intuitive spontaneity, he hopes that the style is reasonably accessible even in the more complex pieces.
Information from the Canadian Music Centre website.

How many Tittles?

How many of the world’s citizens share the surname Tittle?
According to Surname Profiler (see Tittle concentrations below) five in every million Britons is a Tittle. That means there should be about 290 British Tittles. 29 in every million citizens of the United States is a Tittle. That means and estimated 8729 American Tittles. Total for Great Britain and the United States: 9020.
There does not seem to be much evidence of Tittles in the other countries in which the British settled on mass, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, but there is a fair smattering around the various islands of the Caribbean. And of course there will be a few elsewhere in the world. So I reckon it would be fair to estimate that the total number of Tittles worldwide is around 10,000.
If anyone has an alternative method of estimation, please let us know.

Great portrait artist

Famous & Interesting 7: Walter Ernest Tittle
Born Springfield, Ohio, 1883; Died New York, 1966
One of America's greatest portrait artists, Walter Tittle studied under William Merritt Chase in New York. During his successful career, Tittle lived and worked in both England and the United States and became a member of the Royal Society of Arts, London, the Society of American Etchers, the Chicago Society of Etchers and the Print Makers' Society of California. His work in etching, lithography and painting include such famous portraits as Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennett and George Bernard Shaw. Although he rarely numbered his original lithographs, engravings and etchings it is known that Tittle's prints were usually published in editions of only thirty-five impressions.
Today the graphic art of Walter Tittle is included in the following collections: the Library of Congress and the National Gallery, Washington, DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, the New York Public Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Joseph Conrad (top left) is one of Walter Tittle's most famous works of art. During the last year of his illustrious life, Joseph Conrad sat for both Tittle's engraved and painted portraits of him. Today an impression of this drypoint engraving and the painted portrait are included in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Tittleshall

Tittle places: Tittleshall, Norfolk
Tittleshall is a village in Norfolk, England about 20 miles East-North East of Norwich. The picture (left) shows Tittleshall village hall.
One evening in the late 1980s when I lived in South London I went to collect a take-away curry which I had ordered on the telephone. When I announced myself as Mr Tittle I received the reply; “Which Mr Tittle?” Now I reckon the chance of meeting another Tittle that I don’t know, while collecting a take-away curry is about 10,000 to 1.
Once I had met the other Mr Tittle and we had both remarked upon the co-incidence he said "I suppose you know about Tittleshall". His story was that our family hailed from Tittleshall, that it had once been the capital of England and that we had been royalty of some sort. It all sounded nonsense to me; the sort of family myth that gets handed down and embellished through the generations.
Does anyone know anything about this story?
There is an, unfortunately poorly maintained and occasionally faulty, Tittleshall website here.