I understand that his death certificate did say that he was born on February 10, 1909, but considering the fact that his birthday has been one of contention for many years, bounced all over the place by jazz biographers, someone should have researched his true birth date for this genuine legend of swing before now.
William Henry Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland to William H. Webb and his wife Marie Johnson Webb. According to the various musical and jazz biographical books he was born on February 10, 1902, or as reported in a 1936 book entitled Rhythm on Record by Hilton Schleman, 1907. Then there is the Scott Yanow book Classic Jazz that gives the 1909 date. The 1909 date is the one listed on his death certificate and the one that seems to get the most play these days in all the major publications.
If just one of these authors took the time to actually look at Webb's death certificate they might have noticed that the person who filled in the date of birth seemed to have had a little trouble deciding which fourth digit to enter. It appears that a 9 was written over a 7. This certainly didn't satisfy me, especially considering the often reported date that Webb is supposed to have headed his band in the New York night clubs. He would have been a teenager! These items along with all the conflicting birth dates led me to find out the truth.
I couldn't find a birth certificate on file with the state of Maryland but the 1910 United States Census record had been released around 1980 so I checked it. I found a William H. Webb age 38 living on Jefferson Street, in Baltimore, Maryland listed along with his wife Marie age 25 and daughters Bessie age 7, Mabel age 3 and Ethel 5 months old. Their son William the future jazz great was listed as age 5. A simple subtraction of 5 from 1910 turns up the year 1905! Easy. Any researcher after the 1910 census came out could have discovered this with very little work and the minimal of information, that being his parents names.
The accuracy of census records are not 100 percent obviously. They are not infallible and since this date was in conflict with the date apparently given by his wife Sallye on his death certificate a little corroboration could be called for. This was easy because the 1920 census came available in about 1990.
By 1920 William H. Webb was out of the picture having died sometime before and Marie age 34 was living as a lodger at Walker Court in Baltimore. William was the only child living with her and he was listed as being 14 years old. This record, however, could have added to the confusion of his birth date since if one was to do the math we would think he was born in 1906!
I rechecked both records for the date they were innumerated and everything became clear. A 100 year old mystery was finally resolved! The date the 1910 census was taken was April 19, 1910 where William was listed as being 5 years old, since he presumably was born on February 10. The date on the 1920 census which listed William as age 14 was innumerated January 10, 1920 one month before William's 15th birthday! Why didn't anyone before me go the distance and discover this years ago?
I hope that now that the proof is out that Chick Webb was born in 1905 the corrections in print and all over the internet will be briskly corrected.
Baltimore City, April 19, 1910. Supervisor's District No. 3, Enumeration District No. 53, Sheet No. 4 B.
(C) Copyright September 18, 2005 Eric B. Borgman All Rights Reserved.