Francis Neilson


Francis Neilson, was an accomplished actor, playwright, stage director, political figure, avid lecturer, author of more than 60 books, plays and opera librettos, and the most active leader in the Georgist movement.

Early life

Born as Francis Butters, the eldest of nine siblings, in the Claugton Road, Birkenhead, England, he was the son of a Shropshire father, Francis Turley Butters and a Scottish mother from Dundee, Isabella Neilson Hume. Several accounts explain that because of his large family, Neilson left school at the age of fourteen and moved to the United States at the age of eighteen. Nevertheless, the British Census of 1881 records the Butters' household as having 12 people, including 8 children and two maids.
During his days in Liverpool, he attended the Liverpool Institute for Boys. The census also records Francis Butters as a restaurant keeper. The same 1881 census records Neilson's paternal grandparents, Richard Butters and Sarah Turley, living at Cemetery Road in Wellington, Shropshire.

Move to US

In the United States, after arriving in New York City, and paying fifteen dollars for a hansom cab ride from the docks to his guest house, Neilson worked several odd jobs which included a longshoreman, a labourer in Central Park, and some clerical work. After meeting an African-American man surnamed Johnson, who because of his color worked as a porter despite of his college degree, Neilson became fascinated with education and at times "…went hungry to buy books". This fascination led him to Henry George, of whom he became a devoted follower.
During his stay in the United States, he married Catherine O'Gorman; they had two daughters, Isabel and Marion. Isabel Neilson, an accomplished sculptor, married Prince Hermann Carl Bernhard Ferdinand Friedrich von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1932 and became Princess Herman of Saxe-Weimar, and Marion Neilson married Captain Hugh Melville, Sam Browne's Cavalry.

Theatre and opera

Neilson's first success came in the following years after his discovery of Henry George's teachings, where he became well known and respected for his writing, acting, and directing. The Internet Broadway Database, records him as a director of The Little Princess in January 1903, first at the Criterion Theatre and later at the Savoy Theatre; and as the playwright of A Butterfly on The Wheel in January 1912, at the 39th Street Theatre.
In New York, he befriended director Anton Seidl who took him to Germany and introduced him to Richard Wagner's family in Bayreuth. This led him out of the United States and back to London. He came back to London as a stage director for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York's Theatre. Later Neilson was invited to direct the national opera at Covent Garden, which he remodelled completely in 1900. The first opera to be produced there was Puccini's Tosca. Puccini himself was at the theatre supervising the production. The encounter of the two men triggered an interest that took Neilson to invite Puccini to see a private performance of the play Madame Butterfly, playing then at the Duke of York's Theatre. Puccini later requested Neilson to direct the opera at La Scala in Milan; however, this never came to pass due to Neilson's other commitments.

Political career

In the early 1900s, he began his pursuit of politics. His first bid for a parliamentary seat was for the Newport Division of Shropshire; he lost to the incumbent, Colonel Kenyon-Slaney, by a margin of 130 votes.
He was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hyde in Cheshire from 1910 to 1916. During his time in parliament, he was well acquainted with both Prime Ministers: Asquith and Lloyd George. Interested in radical politics, he entered in the progress of the Land Values Movement.
His multiple contributions to the liberal agenda made him frequent the Liberal Headquarters, at Parliament Street, and tour the country giving speeches in support of Liberal candidates. He resigned from parliament when his pacifist beliefs conflicted with the First World War.

Return to US

He returned to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1921 and began pursuing his writing career.
In the US, he met Helen Swift, an heiress of the Swift Meat Packing Business and the widow of Edward Morris, President of Morris & Company, another meat packing company. They were married in 1917. Together, they endowed many charities, and contributed to many institutions, including the University of Chicago, Ripon College, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Liverpool Cathedral, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Author

How Diplomats Make War, was dedicated only six weeks after his resignation from parliament; his antiwar book went through several printings and translations. He went on to write over sixty books, along with many other forms of writing such as articles, plays, and an opera. Neilson co-founded a journal of opinion and literary criticism, titled The Freeman.

Legacy

In 1935, as President of the Chicago Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America and in co-ordination with the University of Liverpool, he organised and endowed an archaeological expedition to the Near East, to research lands of biblical time. Archaeologist John Garstang, at the age of sixty, was enthusiastically in charge of the excavations, with much success at the site of the port of Mersin in southern Turkey.
A few years before his death, he lost his sight. He was assisted in writing his last book, Ur to Nazareth, by his literary secretary, K. Phyllis Evans. Neilson also wrote a two-volume autobiography, My Life in Two Worlds.
Neilson was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which he donated several paintings, including A Winter Carnival in a Small Flemish Town, Portrait of a Man, Possibly George Frederick Handel, and The Pelkus Gate near Utrecht. Neilson's late wife, Helen Swift Neilson, had bequeathed Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan, by Rembrandt, for which she had paid $250,000 in 1930; Rembrandt Harmensz ; the Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Pechell, and 1799. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts was given John Singer Sargent's painting A Capriote. The Liverpool Cathedral also received support from Neilson in the form of a collection of Organ and Choral Works which he sponsored; the organ at the Cathedral also bears his name.

Death

Francis Neilson died, aged 94, on 13 April 1961 in Port Washington, Long Island, New York. He was cremated and his remains taken back to England and interred at the Anglican Liverpool Cathedral.

Publications