Susannah was born in 1819 at Brighouse and baptised at Lightcliffe the same year. She was the daughter of James Sykes, a gardener, and Hannah Smith, who are the direct ancestors of most of the current McDanielson family.
From a young age she displayed a talent for singing and was encouraged and trained by a local blacksmith, Luke Settle, who lived near her home in Spring Gardens, Brighouse.
She performed at local venues during her early singing career and by 1836, though still a teenager, she had become one of the founder members of the Huddersfield Choral Society. By the time of her marriage in 1838 to a local butcher and farmer, Henry Sunderland, her reputation as a great soprano was already becoming widespread and her performances were much in demand.
In 1846 it is noted that she performed 'Handel's Oratorio' at Haworth Church and it's believed that among the audience was the Reverend Patrick Bronte, father of the famous Bronte sisters. It's possible that she knew the sisters personally.
In 1858 she performed in London for Prince Albert and the Duke of Cambridge and soon after for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace, who said of her, 'I may be the Queen of England, but you are the Queen of Song', a soubriquet which stayed with her throughout the remainder of her career.
Susan performed for many titled and important people of the mid-19th Century, but though her voice was considered as fine as any soprano of her time, she chose not to pursue international fame and remained close to her roots and her family of six children, living in either the Southowram or Brighouse areas.
She retired from public performance in 1864 at the age of 45, when at the height of her career. She was for several years thereafter, a teacher of singing.
In 1889 a musical festival was founded in her honour. Still held annually in Huddersfield, the 'Mrs Sunderland Music Festival' is a prestigious competition which attracts singers and musicians from around the country.
Susan outlived four of her children and her husband Henry, who died in 1893. She passed away in 1905 and her funeral was attended by thousands of local people. Along with some of her family, she is buried in Brighouse Cemetery.
Children of Susan and Henry Sunderland
Susan and Henry had six children.
Agnes (1839), married Joseph Wheatley, a Draper, in 1859 at Halifax, but soon after they lived on the Isle of Wight, where their daughter Elizabeth was born the same year in Ryde. Their second daughter, Susan, was born in Halifax in 1861.
Agnes Wheatley died in 1869, after which her husband remained widowed and his daughters appear to have stayed with him until his own death in 1897. By coincidence, they lived for many years at Ganny Lock Cottage, Brighouse, where one of Susan’s 3x-great-nieces lived in the 1990s. Agnes and Joseph’s daughter Elizabeth married Irish-born John McConnell in Halifax in 1898, and by 1901 they were living in Westmorland, where he was clergyman at the church of Underbarrow and Bradleyfield. They are both commemorated on a window in the church and are buried in the churchyard.
Agnes’ unmarried daughter Susan appears to have moved to a lodging house at 7 Duke Street, Bath, Somerset.
Sam Sunderland (1841) is found on the 1881 census, with wife Clarice (nee Nowill), and they are resident at Cromwell House, Southowram, where Susan and Henry had lived in 1871. The census records him as a farmer of 57 acres, so he may have inherited the land and house from his father. There are two children in the house; Henry age 3 and Susan Marion age 5. Their daughter Louie would be born shortly after the 1881 census.
However by 1884 they had moved to Sheffield district where Sam had become a greengrocer in Infirmary Road. That same year Clarice died by suicide at their home, 3 Hyde Park Place, Broomhall Park, approximately ten weeks after the birth of another child. Sam re-married soon after to Emily Turner and lived at Marples Street, Eccleshall.
Charles Sykes Sunderland (1844), a solicitor, died in 1889, apparently unmarried.
Tom Wilkinson Sunderland (1842 – 1900) married Sarah E Crowther in Halifax in 1871. They had four children so far known of: Ethel (1873); Mary A (1877); John R (1879); and Susan (1883). It appears that Tom remarried in 1887 to Fanny Lord (of Ratcliffe, Lancs) in Halifax in 1852. They had four children; Ethel c1873; Mary Ann c1877; John Richardson 1879 and Susan c1883. (John Richardson married Maud Lake Cutler in Medway, Kent in 1902. Their son, Cyril John, born in 1911, died as a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway. He is buried at Kanachanburi Cemetery, Thailand).
Hannah Jane (1849) married an Attorney, Charles Godfrey Esam (of Sheffield) in Halifax in 1869. They had a daughter, Agnes (born Sheffield) in 1871 and are found on the census for that year resident with Susan and Henry at Cromwell House, Southowram. By 1881, Susan had returned to Brighouse, resident at 1 St Martin’s Terrace, where Hannah Jane was also resident, married, but Charles was absent and is not found on the census. It appears that the Esams emigrated to New Zealand soon after and newspaper references are found to a solicitor, Charles Godfrey Esam, declared bankrupt in New Zealand in 1890 and apparently back in practise in 1904. It is known that some of Susan’s descendents currently live in New Zealand.
Martha Annie was born c1852 and nothing more is known of her.
In 1891 Susan and Henry were living at Lightcliffe Road, Brighouse and with them, their 9 year-old granddaughter, Louie Sunderland.
By 1901 Susan was widowed and resident at 24 Spring Terrace, Brighouse, Louie Sunderland was still with her, aged 19, a milliner.
