RESEARCH NOTES

PAUL TINDALL

HENRY ABRAM
Henry Abram of Ramsgate, who sold the organ from Pugin's house there¹, advertised an even more interesting instrument in 1886.² This was a CC organ, seven stops, by 'Byfield and Green', which does not obviously match any known so far. Abram was perhaps the Dr Abram who 'conducted with his usual ability' when a new organ was opened at Christ Church, Ramsgate in 1882.³ Ramsgate had a substantial Jewish population in the nineteenth century, for Sir Moses Montefiore opened a synagogue there in 1833.

1. BIOSRep, XXVI, 2 (2002), 22.
2. Musical Times 525 (November 1886).
3. Musical Times 471 (May 1882).

THOMAS DALLAM
'Thomas [Dallam] was born at nearby Flixton in 1575.'¹ This is a bold statement indeed! It is true that Gerald Sumner has discovered the birth of a Thomas Dallam in Flixton in that year. Robert Dallam's tombstone at New College, Oxford stated, according to Antony Wood, that Thomas came from Dallam (near Warrington), and other Dallams are found nearby at this time.² However, Flixton is about ten miles away from Dallam, and the parish registers of the whole area are fragmentary, unsurprisingly, at this date. This is not to depreciate Dr Sumner's painstaking investigations, and it may indeed be the case that by good fortune the Flixton birth is 'our' Thomas Dallam, but it is hardly a closed matter. The idea that Thomas was born c.1575 seems to derive from Freeman, who says:

Assuming him to have been about 24 years of age at the time he undertook his voyage to Turkey, the date of his birth would be c.1575.³
   This has formed the premise for subsequent investigations,⁴ but appears to have no particular foundation. The famous Diary⁵ is a frustrating document. It says nothing about Dallam's age, background, training, business, house or family. It does, however, mention that he was unmarried in 1599, though his son Robert was born c.1602 according to his tombstone. The Diary is written in a confident and relaxed tone, and Dallam carefully notes considerable sums for equipment for the voyage, including the purchase of a pair of virginals. It does not read as the work of a particularly youthful or inexperienced person. Dallam mentions other craftsmen:⁶

'Myghell Watson, my joiner', 'my maete John Harvie' [and later] 'I went to the Surralia, and with me my mate Harvie who was the ingener, Mr Rowland Buckett the paynter and Myghell Watson the joyner'.

The word 'mate' had several meanings even at this date: 'colleague' seems most likely, presumably working together before the trip, since Harvey alone is referred to like this. Bak refers to 'the uniform youth and easy friendship of these men',⁷ but at no point is their age, at any rate, mentioned.
   We know surprisingly little about Thomas Dallam. He was identified as a separate figure by Rimbault ,⁸ and the last document referring to him by name is of 1630, when he was paid for building an organ at Bristol Cathedral with 'his sonn'.⁹ Thomas is mentioned in the Blacksmith's Company records only in 1623-5 when his apprentice Richard Foulsham was made free, in 1626 when he was fined for refusing office, and in 1627 when Thomas Harrison was apprenticed to him for eight years.¹⁰ Presumably, he died or retired shortly afterwards, as Robert alone is first referred to by name in the York contract on 21 March 1632 [1633 n.s.].¹¹
   The Salisbury papers contain some lesser-known references to Dallam:¹²

23 September 1610    Thomas Dallom on his bill
      For my owne worke on the portative two days x s       For my man v s
      For making one wodden pipe ii s vi d
      The some of all xvii s vi d
      Receyved by me Willi. Frost to the use of Thomas Dallom
       the some of xvii s vid
16 November 1611    Rowland Buckitt the paynter
      For gildinge the organs in the greate chamber 26 13s 4d

27 November 1628¹³ Imprimus, for tuninge of the organs xxv s
      recpt James Hodgekinson 27^th November 1628

This looks very like 'John Hodgson', who is found tuning at Eton College 1617-8, said there to be Dallam's servant. ¹⁴
   An inventory of Salisbury House in the Strand dated 20 June 1629 mentions the following: ¹⁵

In the great chamber one great organ in a case of wainscott.
In the great withdrawinge chamber a great wind instrument, the outside of walnuttree curiously inlaid.
chapple above paire of organs uppon a frame of wainscott.

The description 'great wind instrument' was also used at Hatfield where Dallam was paid for 'setting up and perfecting the great wind instrument' in 1611.¹⁶

1. Bicknell, Stephen, The History of the English Organ (Cambridge, 1996), 72.
2. Sumner, Gerald, 'The Origins of the Dallams in Lancashire', JBIOS 8 (1984),
51-7.
3. Freeman, Andrew, 'Records of British Organ Builders, 940-1660', Dictionary of
Organs and Organists (London, 1921, 2^nd ed.), 45.
4. e.g. Bak, G., 'Who built the organ for the Sultan?', JBIOS 25 (2001), 135.
5. British Library, MS Add. 17480, published in Bent, J.J. (ed.), Early Voyages and
Travels in the Levant (Hakluyt Society, London, 1893).
6. op. cit., 20, 28, 66.
7. Bak, op. cit., 140.
8. Rimbault, E.F., The Early English Organ Builders and their Work (London, 1864),
45-6.
9. Freeman, Andrew, 'The Organs of Bristol Cathedral', The Organ I (October
1922), 66.
10. Matthews, Betty, 'A Note on Thomas Harris', BIOSRep XX, 1 (1996), 20-1.
11. Hopkins & Rimbault (London 1870, 2^nd ed.), 67.
12. Owen, G. Dyfnallt (ed.), Calendar of Manuscripts belonging to the Marquess of
Salisbury preserved at Hatfield House (Historical Manuscripts Commission 9),
part XXIV, Addenda 1605-1668 (London, 1976), 189, 204.
13. idem, part XXII, 1612-68 (London, 1971), 247.
14. Freeman, Andrew: 'The Organs of Eton College', The Organ III (January 1925),
160.
15. Owen, op. cit., 1971, 251-2. For further payments to Dallam at Salisbury House,
see BIOSRep XVII(1993), 4, 18-9.
16. Bicknell, op. cit., 75.

BARNSLEY
The organ in St Mary's Church, Barnsley, Yorkshire is a puzzle. The case now in the church appears to be of four-tower Smith type, but the early sources seem confused as to its origins. Buckingham says:

this organ originally consisted but of one set of keys and was made by Parker in a handsome Wainscott case ... Choir organ added by whom I do not know ...; Swell organ was added by Greenwood of Leeds

but according to Sperling (3, 73) it had

Great organ by Snetzler 1747. Erected here [Barnsley] 1780. Choir and Swell added by Greenwood of Leeds 1823. A fine old carved case.

Extracts from the church records are recorded in 1891:²

1682    Paid Mr Bolton in part of organ £7-0-0
      New organ c.1763, repaired 1778
      Second-hand organ installed in 1785 for 100 guineas

5 August 1785    Wm Tooth, one day unloading the organs 2s
9 March 1786    Received from Henry Clarke for cargo of an organ from Galby    Sarah Leadman    £13 15s
1 February 1787    Three days setting up the Organ 6s
2 February 1787    Mr Donaldson for erecting the organ £10

In 1820 it was stored in the Grammar School while the church was rebuilt. A new temporary instrument was provided by Greenwood for services in the schoolroom, and this was incorporated into the main organ when it was rebuilt. It was later enlarged by Nicholson of Bradford in 1864 and rebuilt by Brindley & Foster in 1885.
   The most interesting word in this account is 'Galby'. The churches of Galby (1741) and Norton-by-Galby (or Kings Norton) (1761) in Leicestershire were rebuilt under the direction of William Fortrey, the local squire. Norton-by-Galby is believed to have had an organ by Ralph Dallam (1664), rebuilt by Smith (1701) and sold to Rugby Parish Church in 1792.³ But what Smith-like organ might have come from Galby? At this point we may turn to William Ludlam's celebrated 'Letter' to the Gentleman's Magazine, published in 1772.⁴ Ludlam was Vicar of Norton-by-Galby from 1749, and he writes:

A gentleman in this neighbourhood, of diftinguifhed tafte, not chufing to be directed by thefe ignoramus's [common organ-builders], had an organ cafe made exactly after the pattern of that in the univerfity church at Cambridge. July 1766    'Incertae' Pd. To Mr Porter, our Organist, for
   Tuning ye Organ this Midsummer & in
   consideration of his engaging to continue
   Tuning it from time to time as there shall
    be Occasion till Midsummer next
   [signed] (Sam: Porter)         £5    [TB101]

[There had been a Visitation in late May 1766.]
   TB= Treasurer's Book. TV=Treasurer's Vouchers

Curiously, Hitchcock's obituary notice in the General Evening Post makes no mention of harpsichords at all: 'On the 23rd November 1774 died Mr Hitchcock, organ builder in Fetter Lane'. He had been at 28 Fetter Lane since at least 1763. It is also odd that there is no sign of him working in the City of London churches, since he was a Freeman of the Haberdasher's Company.

1. Boalch, Donald, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840 (London,
1974, 2^nd ed.), 73.
2. Freeman, Andrew, 'The Organs of Lambeth Parish Church', Musical Times
(February 1922), 119-121.

EDWARD BRIDGE
Edward Bridge (spinet, BIOSRep XXVII, 2 (2003), 16) was the brother of Richard. Joan Jeffery points out that in his will Richard Bridge leaves his tools and materials to 'my Brother Edward Bridge and to my servant Thomas Turner'.¹

1. JBIOS 26 (2002), 119.

TAILPIECE
We read that part of the restoration at the Albert Hall will involve a gift shop built into the lower part of the case (the loudest 'musak' in the world?). This is not an entirely new idea. St Julian, Shrewsbury is now a shopping arcade. Of the late lamented organ by Bewsher & Fleetwood there remains only the case, which is, quite simply, a shop. One walks through the fenêtre where the console ought to be, and opens negotiations. Another recycling project is at Quatt, also in Shropshire. A tiny, flat three tower case of the sort that might belong to a barrel organ has been emptied of pipes and filled with green baize. It serves as a noticeboard in the church porch. Finally, and most regrettably, in the fine rococo church of West Wycombe, which is otherwise entirely unspoilt, there is an empty case of 1763 perched on the west gallery. It is charmingly bracketed by large black loudspeakers.

RESEARCH REQUEST
Roger Judd is producing a history of the organs in Windsor Castle, and is seeking help from BIOS members to supply any information which may help. Please contact Roger Judd, 23 The Cloisters, Windsor Castle, Berkshire SL4 1NJ,

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