Penner, Henry

Henry Penner was active as a musician and educator in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky between 1802 and 1819. Given these varied locations, and the fact that Penner was listed as a music teacher in the Mason family manuscript account book, it is likely that Penner was an itinerant music teacher and performer who traveled to teach and perform to earn a living. Between 1815 and 1817, he tutored Emily Mason and other children in the Loudoun County household of General Hugh Douglas.  

Several Henry Penners are listed in the archival records of the mid-Atlantic states during this time, and it is unclear which one is the musician in question. Penner may have been a Revolutionary War veteran, since a Henry Penner served in Captain Peyton Hanson’s company in the 2nd Virginia Regiment of Foot during the war. A Henry M. Penner was also listed as a member of Brent’s District of Columbia Militia during the War of 1812. This Henry Penner’s role in the service is not indicated by surviving records, but if this is the musical Penner, perhaps he contributed to the military music of the era. 

The first documentation of Henry Penner’s musical activities comes from a concert advertisement published in the Pittsburgh Gazette on 24 December 1802, in which musician Peter Declary “respectfully informs his friends and the public, that he will give a Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music, at Mr. Morrow’s Tavern” in Pittsburgh on 3 January 1803. Declary added that Bohemian composer Frantisek Kotzwara’s popular piece “The Battle of Prague” would be “performed on the Forte Piano by Master Henry Penner.”  

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Virginia, it was common for itinerant teachers to travel between the homes of elite families and teach their children. Music instruction was a luxury that affluent families desired to prepare their children, especially daughters, for genteel adult lives. Given the status of the Douglas family, it is not surprising that they would have hired a music teacher for their children. Furthermore, archival documents show that Hugh Douglas supported the education of his children. His estate records found in the Mason family manuscript account book show that music master Henry Penner was paid $17.50 on 10 May 1817.  

Penner’s travel route also exemplifies the wave of migration south by northerners in search of opportunity and land. On 8 June 1819, P. Declary and H.M. Penner gave a concert of vocal and instrumental music near Farmington, Kentucky, where the two men were spoken of as Kentucky musicians. Perhaps the men had settled there after working in Pennsylvania and Virginia. As many elite Virginians moved to Kentucky, they likely needed teachers for their children, which may have spurred Penner’s move west. 

By Cassandra Farrell and Jayme Kurland