Introduction

Biography

Michael was the son of Will­iam and Su­san­na May­brick, and hus­band of Lau­ra Wi­thers.

He played the or­gan at St Pe­ter’s Church, where his fa­ther was par­ish clerk, 1855–56. In 1866, he went to stu­dy in Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny, and dis­cov­ered he had a fine ba­ri­tone voice.

He de­buted in Lon­don as a sing­er in 1869 and ap­peared with the Na­tion­al Op­era Com­pa­ny at the St. James Thea­tre in Oc­tob­er 1871.

He took the stage name Ste­phen Adams, and with Fred­er­ick Wea­ther­ly wrote hun­dreds of songs, such as A War­ri­or Bold and Nan­cy Lee.

His ca­reer as a po­pu­lar mu­sic hall ar­tist de­clined af­ter his sis­ter-in-law’s much pub­li­cized 1889 tri­al for poi­son­ing her hus­band.

In 1893, May­brick left Lon­don and re­tired to the Isle of Wight. While there, he was elect­ed may­or of Ryde five times, and be­came pre­si­dent of the Isle of Wight Con­ser­va­tive As­so­ci­ation and chair­man of the coun­ty hos­pi­tal.