1 Hoare's biography (London, 1820) was written at the request of the Sharp family, and Shield's review, written in 1816 at Hoare's invitation, was included as Appendix VI. Granville's Introduction (publ. 1767, reprinted 1777) embraces rudimentary theory and sight-reading (see pp. 74–5).Google Scholar

2 Jeannette B. Holland and Jan LaRue, ‘The Sharp Manuscript, London 1759–c1793: A Uniquely Annotated Music Catalogue’, Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 73/3 (March, 1969), 147–66, and A. Hyatt King, Some British Collectors of Music (London, 1961), 29–30. The catalogue (now Drexel MS 1022) is held by New York Public Library (henceforth US-NYp).Google Scholar

3 Mark Argent ed., Recollections of R.J.S. Stevens, an Organist in Georgian London (London, 1992), 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 The portrait was made available by the executor-trustees following the death of Miss Olive Lloyd-Baker, of Hardwicke Court near Gloucester, in 1975. It is discussed on pp. 7–10.Google Scholar

5 By E.C.P. Lascelles (London, 1928), 119–126. Lascelles may have been related to the Sharp family, for one of the grandsons of Mary, the daughter of William, married a Catherine Lascelles in 1868; Gloucestershire Record Office (henceforth GLr) D3549, catalogue, p. 11 (Lloyd / Baker Family Tree). The item (GLr D3549, 36/1/9) which might have shed light on this relationship has gone missing since the archive was catalogued. With future references to this archive only the document identification (e.g., 14/1/2) will normally be given.Google Scholar

6 It, too, was made following the death of Miss Olive Lloyd-Baker in 1975. Since then there have been several other significant donations.Google Scholar

7 As the hyphen was not adopted until c. 1874 the different renderings of the surname accord with contemporary practice. It is with considerable pleasure that I acknowledge my gratitude to Mr Charles Lloyd-Baker for giving me permission, through the Gloucestershire County and Diocesan Archivist, to publish, either in facsimile or in transcript, such passages in the family papers as I consider relevant. I also wish to acknowledge the considerable help I have been given by the Record Office staff.Google Scholar

8 Brian Crosby, A Catalogue of Durham Cathedral Music Manuscripts (Oxford, 1986), xxi-vi.Google Scholar

9 Brian Crosby, ‘Stephen and other Paxtons: An Investigation into the Identities and Careers of a Family of Eighteenth-Century Musicians’, Music & Letters, 81 (2000), 41–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Appendix, xii; James Raine, A Memoir of the Rev. John Hodgson, 2 vols (London, 1858), ii, 337, unnumbered footnote; and The Newcastle Advertiser for 21 February 1789, 6 February 1790 and 26 February 1791. I am grateful to Roz Southey for drawing my attention to these newspaper reports.Google Scholar

11 At GLr are 14/1/1 and 14/1/2 (memoirs) and 12/1/4 and 12/1/6 (cuttings), and at Northamptonshire Record Office (henceforth NHr), 364p/67–9 (ledgers) and 3649/70–1 (cash books). Although a later hand has written in pencil on the paper cover of GLr 14/1/2, ‘Aunt Prowse's Diary’, the whole tone is retrospective, and 1808 occurs in an entry (p. 114) relating to 1777. Accordingly, the document will be referred to as her memoirs.Google Scholar

12 13/4/2, H, p. 42. Granville's four so-called journals, all filed under 13/4/2, were compiled and annotated by his niece Catharine from his commonplace books, notebooks and journals. It is not known whether the original books still exist.Google Scholar

13 14/1/2, p. 7; Robert Beatson, A Political Index (Edinburgh, 1786), pt iii, 56.Google Scholar

14 Stranks, C.J., The Charities of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe and Dr. John Sharp 1721–1976 (Durham Cathedral Lecture, 1976), 5, explains that the estates in Northumberland had belonged to the Forsters but economic pressures had forced the family to sell. Crewe was an interested party because he had married Dorothy Forster in 1700.Google Scholar

15 This phrase is on the family memorial. It is now on the wall of the south aisle of the Durham Cathedral cloisters but was originally inside the cathedral at the west end. Catharine, the daughter of James, was responsible for its erection in 1816. For brief biographical details and a selective family tree see Appendices 1 and 2.Google Scholar

16 Elizabeth's spelling, punctuation and use of upper and lower-case letters are far from consistent; with ‘a’, ‘c’, ‘m’, ‘s’, ‘w’ and most 'n's even a difference in size is difficult to detect. With this and all other sources, unless it is stated to the contrary, every attempt has been made to reproduce faithfully all textual idiosyncrasies, including the use of superscript and underlining. However, because they are regarded as preparatory to the writer's definitive text, words crossed out have not normally been reproduced nor interlinear additions indicated as such.Google Scholar

17 The songbook (8/1/3) contains words only, and some of that is in the family shorthand. The other statements will be justified as the article progresses.Google Scholar

18 Concerning Alexander's Feast (performed about 7 December 1749) and Samson (29 November 1750) see Edward Hughes ed., Letters of Spencer Cowper, Dean of Durham, 1746–1774, Surtees Society 165 (Durham, 1956), 118 and 135.Google Scholar

19 Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill ed., Music and Theatre in Handel's World: The Family Papers of James Harris, 1732–80 (Oxford, 2002), 278–9. The concerts were put on for the Dean who had requested his brother, the Earl, for copies on 30 November 1750; Hughes ed., Letters of Spencer Cowper, 135.Google Scholar

20 James Hesletine (b. c. 1692; organist, Durham Cathedral, 1711–d. 1763) had been a chorister at the Chapel Royal under John Blow. He was the Sharps' uncle, for he and their father had each married daughters of Sir George Wheler (1650–1722/3), a prebendary of Durham Cathedral. The Sharps' father married Judith, Wheler's seventeenth child, in 1722, and Hesletine her sister Frances in 1729/30. Frances died childless just over a year later.Google Scholar

21 M183–M189. The books, which survive in varying degrees of completeness, are for Hautboy Primo, Hautboy Secundo, Violino Primo, Violino Secundo, Viola, Violoncello and Basso respectively.Google Scholar

22 M185, p. 81. M185 also includes the signatures of ‘John Wharton’ (p. 3), ‘Francis Myddleton’ and ‘James Mason’ (both p. 84). The death on 28 July 1771 of a Francis Middleton, a cousin, is noted in GLr 14/1/2, p. 85.Google Scholar

23 T.H. Burbidge ed., Durham School Register (3rd edn, Cambridge, 1940), 106.Google Scholar

24 He deflected personal credit for any of the charity's achievements, saying that the idea to restore the castle had been his father's and that the other decisions were made jointly by all the Trustees.Google Scholar

25 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 19.Google Scholar

26 John Venn and J. A. Venn eds, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, 1922).Google Scholar

27 7/2/15, pt 1, item 33, also numbered 101.Google Scholar

28 7/2/15, pt 2, p. 27.Google Scholar

29 The Memoirs of the Life, and Writings of Percival Stockdale. Written by himself 2 vols (London, 1809), ii, 14. Thompson Cooper writing on Stockdale in The Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen (London, 1885–1901) is incorrect in stating that Thomas I was at the time connected with the parish, for Thomas I had died in March 1758. Stockdale does not mention that at his ordination he was licensed to serve in the parish of Bamburgh, Thomas II's other parish; Bishop Trevor's Act Book, Auckland Castle Papers, held by Archives & Special Collections, Durham University Library.Google Scholar

30 The registers are held by the Guildhall Library, London. This date range, and the others below, are capable of expansion because there was often an interval of some months between the last marriage performed by a particular person and the first by his successor.Google Scholar

31 According to Venn and Venn eds, Alumni Cantabrigienses, a Samuel Ely was under-master at St Paul's school from 1748 to 1761.Google Scholar

32 14/1/2, p. 93.Google Scholar

33 Presumably the Batavia (now Djakarta), the capital of Java (now Indonesia).Google Scholar

34 The cost is stated on William's indenture, both halves of which survive in 23/1/3. Under the same reference are parts of the indentures with three of William's apprentices: Charles Granville Wheler (for £367. 10s. Od. in 1758), Charles Blicke (no fee charged, 1762) and Charles Griffiths (£735, 1770).Google Scholar

35 The plans of the basements and three upper floors, drawn by William Newton in 1769, are preserved in 10/1/4.Google Scholar

36 The claim was first mentioned to me by Maria Browne, a great-great-great grand-daughter of Mary, William's daughter. It is also stated in Lascelles, Granville Sharp, 113–14. The existence of the plaque, which commemorates William, his wife Catharine, his sister Elizabeth and Granville as well, was brought to my notice by Tina Craig, Deputy Librarian to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Her source was the ‘Medical Court Roll’, an unpublished manuscript compiled by Samuel Clippingdale in 1922. He described the memorial as in the south transept. It is now on the east wall of the north transept. The inscriptions on the sides of the family vault in the adjoining churchyard rendered dates on the plaque unnecessary.Google Scholar

37 See pp. 7–10.Google Scholar

38 It is a copy of the letter, which is not addressed to anyone, that is preserved as 10/1/6.Google Scholar

39 See 16/1/1 for William's letter to his sister Judith describing the occasion. I am grateful to Miss Pamela Clark (Deputy Registrar, Royal Archives, Windsor Castle) for directing me to A. Aspinall ed., The Later Correspondence of George III (Cambridge, 1967), iii, 92–4, and for advising me that the records at Windsor are ‘far from complete’.Google Scholar

40 For the visits see pp. 45–54, and for the guests, Appendices 8–10.Google Scholar

41 Public Record Office, LC3/58–9, 67–8. John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (2nd edn, London, 1812), i, 437–45, 709, and the Gentleman's Magazines for 1813 and 1818 make no mention of a royal connection.Google Scholar

42 An Account of a New Method for treating Fractured Legs (London, 1767, reprinted 1777). A footnote on p. 15 discloses that he had first experimented with the idea in 1748.Google Scholar

43 14/1/2, p. 12.Google Scholar

44 Thomas Prowse had married James's older cousin Elizabeth (see Appendix 2).Google Scholar

45 14/1/2, p. 26.Google Scholar

46 His and other brochures are filed under 12/2/1. According to them James did not invent the rolling carriage but improved on what David Bourn had advertized in 1763. James's inventive ingenuity is discussed in C.S. Smith, ‘James Sharp: pioneer of rolling carts’, Country Life, 7 December 1972, 1596–8 (copy in 12/2/11).Google Scholar

47 Northumberland Record Office, 452/C3/36.Google Scholar

48 A cutting of the obituary is in 12/1/4, the quotation from 14/1/2, pp. 80–1. There Elizabeth quotes from a letter in which Thomas had relayed to her his conversation with John Alcock in 1770 (see below, p. 46). James is described as one of those who ‘went up with the Address’. It should also be noted that Granville and James are named as co-respondents in the account of the litigation in 1767 relating to the slave, Jonathan Strong; York Minster Library, COLL. 1896/1, ‘Letter book of Granville Sharp’, pp. 196–211.Google Scholar

49 The details of his apprenticeship are given in his extracted journal, 13/4/2, Book G, pp. 6–8.Google Scholar

50 His journal (13/4/2, H, p. 65) first mentions William Wilberforce on 20 April 1791.Google Scholar

51 It was his uncle, the Revd Granville Wheler, who, in his efforts to persuade him, undertook to resign the living of Leake (13/4/2, G, p. 11, has ‘Great Leke’) in Nottinghamshire, worth more than £300 per annum, in his favour.Google Scholar

52 Their mother had died the previous year.Google Scholar

53 17/3/1 states that Anne Jemima bought the leasehold from the Revd Egerton in 1792. It passed on her death to her cousin Catharine, who sold it in 1820 to the Revd Joseph Watkins.Google Scholar

54 NHr 364p/67–71, passim. The ledgers also give details of her own spending, and have ‘holding accounts’ for her domestic staff and for various members of her family. Parts of the first ledger, which opens a few months after her husband's death, are in James's hand. Her compassionate nature is elaborated on in GLr 13/5/33, A Discourse occasioned by the Death of Elizabeth Prowse, by the Revd John Owen (London, 1810), 9–15.Google Scholar

55 14/1/2, p. 129, cf. pp. 123–4 and 128. Zoffany visited Wicken Park in December 1780 and painted both Elizabeth and ‘Old Jonathan’, her gardener.Google Scholar

56 In an exchange of information the National Portrait Gallery, London, agreed I could use the key in one of their pamphlets.Google Scholar

57 For Elizabeth's comments see 14/1/2, p. 129; for Granville's and Catharine's see 12/1/2.Google Scholar

58 Here and elsewhere ‘|’ is used to indicate line-breaks determined by factors other than the width of the page or column.Google Scholar

59 For selected biographical details relating to these and other members of the family see Appendices 1 and 2.Google Scholar

60 ‘Mrs’ was then also used of spinsters of mature years.Google Scholar

61 Although the boats were regarded very much as belonging to the family, when the barge was acquired in the early 1750s William was the only one not serving an apprenticeship.Google Scholar

62 In ‘Recréation Picturale d'une Récréation Musicale: Le Tableau de la Famille Sharp par Zoffany’, Bulletin de la Société d'Etudes anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 51 (Paris, 2000), 273–80, Françoise Deconinick-Brossard draws attention to the triangular arrangement of the three oldest brothers, the circle embracing their sisters and Granville, and the diagonal line connecting the four instruments which could provide the continuo. I am further grateful to Professor Deconinck-Brossard for drawing my attention to three sets of books of ‘Barge Music’ (see p. 49) listed in the Sharps' own catalogue of their music (see pp. 64–8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 NHr 364p/68, opening 28, has a payment on 3 January 1777 for its repair.Google Scholar

64 I am grateful to Professor Angelo Zaniol of Venice for information about this instrument.Google Scholar

65 The clarinets have ‘G. Miller’ on the maker's nameplate, and it may not be just a coincidence that a clarinettist named Miller played on the Sharps' yacht in 1777 (see pp. 48–50).Google Scholar

66 14/1/3.Google Scholar

67 It is the smaller of two books filed under 12/1/1. Two sheets relating to the period it covers have been clipped inside the larger ‘Boat Book’. Neither book is paginated or foliated.Google Scholar

68 This is evident from the handwriting, and from ‘Jim, self on 6 May 1753 when that is considered with the fact that ‘Jim, Granville’ joined the cruise of 16–17 June 1753 on its second day.Google Scholar

69 The specification of the Griffin is unknown. It must have been disposed of relatively early for it does not feature in Catharine's list (12/1/11) of some ten vessels owned by the family.Google Scholar

70 The final word is crushed because of lack of space. I wonder whether it is ‘dispunters’, and whether that is derived from ‘dispunct’, which means both ‘to mark’ and ‘to erase’.Google Scholar

71 In the Table ‘3S’ is used for the three Sharp brothers, and ‘WS’, etc., for individual brothers.Google Scholar

72 I have supplied corrected totals where necessary.Google Scholar

73 In the book the ‘3’ has been altered to a ‘2’ because Granville is named separately.Google Scholar

74 It is not clear how a second costing headed June 16th, totalling £1. 18s. 6d. and mentioning Deptford and Chelsea, relates to these expenses.Google Scholar

75 Hughes ed., Letters of Spencer Cowper, 174–5: it emerges that Cornforth Gelson was a violinist and William Paxton a cellist. The Lloyd-Baker papers also point to Paxton as a cellist (see p. 30).Google Scholar

76 Durham, Dean & Chapter Act Books. Clarke died in 1767. He is alluded to as a violinist in Hughes ed., Letters of Spencer Cowper, 169. Copies of a single song and of two small collections of songs published by him are held by the British Library.Google Scholar

77 I am grateful to Roz Southey for drawing my attention to the two concerts.Google Scholar

78 J.T. Fowler ed., Rites of Durham, Surtees Society 107 (1964 reprint), 92–3. The chapter, headed ‘The Steeple’, is not in any known sixteenth or seventeenth century manuscript source. It first appeared in the 1733 edition by Christopher Hunter.Google Scholar

79 The family letters are filed under 7/2/15. Some are loose (pt 1), others have been entered into a hard-backed book (pt 2) entitled, ‘Some Extracts from the Common Letters or Family Correspondence of the #s between 1755 and 1763‘. Elizabeth, however, dates them between 1754 and 1758 (14/1/2, p. 15), which is when the sisters left Durham after their father diedGoogle Scholar

80 The two letters are in 7/2/15. pt 2. pp. 5–7 and 8, respectively.Google Scholar

81 As in the list of subscribers to Maurice Greene, Forty Select Anthems (1743).Google Scholar

82 Possibly a member of William's domestic staff, see below, p. 49.Google Scholar

83 In the manuscript the list is written continuously.Google Scholar

84 The items marked † and ‡ were also performed in 1758 and 1774–6 respectively (see pp. 31 and 36–8).Google Scholar

85 See pp. 31 and 37.Google Scholar

86 Henry George Farmer, ‘A Forgotten Composer of Anthems: William Savage (1720–89)’, Music & Letters, 17 (1936), 196. The article quotes in full R.J.S. Stevens, ‘Life of Mr. William Savage'. For Paxton's involvement with the Sharps see Crosby, ‘Stephen and other Paxtons’, 54–5 and 63.Google Scholar

87 For Fitzherbert see the list of subscribers to Greene's Forty Select Anthems; for Cox see p. 32. Lewis is also mentioned as a treble on p. 30, and as an adult in Appendix 5.Google Scholar

88 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, p. N. For a discussion of the catalogue see p. 64–8. The younger Jordan worked at times with Byfield, at other times with Bridges; see Gillingham, Michael, Guy Oldham and Nicholas Plumley on the three organ builders in New Grove (2^nd edn, London, 2001).Google Scholar

89 It is not clear whether the Rothbury organ was in the rectory or in the church. Its installation is referred to in a footnote to a letter Thomas I wrote from Rothbury to the musical Sir John Dolben, Bart. (1684–1756) on 10 May 1752:Google Scholar

90 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, pp. 171–2. It is not known whether the manuscript still survives.Google Scholar

91 Sir John St Alban has not been identified.Google Scholar

92 The loose reproduced copy is found under 13/1/H13, the book copy in 7/2/15, pt 2, pp. 85–6. The previous letter in the latter is dated 12 December 1757; Hesletine died on 20 June 1763.Google Scholar

93 I am grateful to Professors Donald Burrows and David Greer for their help with many of the identifications.Google Scholar

94 The opening two phrases of Handel's Acis and Galatea.Google Scholar

95 Catch by White in John Hilton's Catch as Catch Can (1688).Google Scholar

96 Catch by Purcell; Franklin B. Zimmerman, Henry Purcell 1659–1695, An Analytical Catalogue of His Music (London, 1963), 119, No. 262.Google Scholar

97 ‘Sing merrily now my lads’ is a catch by Aldrich.Google Scholar

98 Handel, Alexander's Feast, the final chorus of the First Part, altered from ‘So Love was Crown'd, but Musick won the Cause’.Google Scholar

99 Catch by Purcell; Zimmerman, Henry Purcell, 128–9, No. 290.Google Scholar

100 Clause from the end of Handel, Semele.Google Scholar

101 Catch by Purcell; Zimmerman, Henry Purcell, 125, No. 280.Google Scholar

102 From Jenny and Fanny by [T.A. Arne], with ‘… did Crown’ altered to ‘… shall crown’.Google Scholar

103 Handel, Alexander's Feast, the final chorus of the Appendix. Granville has substituted ‘our meetings’ for ‘this evening’.Google Scholar

104 Compositions with this first line are attributed to Gamble, Locke and anon.Google Scholar

105 ‘Make bright your warrior's shield’ is by Blow.Google Scholar

106 Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Act 3, Sailor's song. See also his Bess of Bedlam and History of Diocletian.Google Scholar

107 7/2/15, pt 1, marked 55 (in pencil) and No. 109 (in ink).Google Scholar

108 He moved house within Mincing Lane in 1757, and to Old Jewry in 1769. Comparisons with the plans of the Old Jewry house (see 10/1/4) have failed to make a positive identification.Google Scholar

109 See p. 3, footnote 20.Google Scholar

110 The Chapter Library, Durham, Bamburgh Mus. M59–M61. Only M59 has any bookplates: John's own and also the London Sharps' organ one. On the latter ‘Messrs Sharp’ and ‘London’ have been covered over and ‘John Sharp’ and ‘Hartburn’ printed by hand in their place.Google Scholar

111 Ian Bartlett and Robert J. Bruce, ‘Boyce, William’ in New Grove (2^nd edn, London, 2001), iv, 156.Google Scholar

112 Simon McVeigh, Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn (Cambridge, 1993), 219.Google Scholar

113 Simon McVeigh, The Violinist in London's Concert Life 1750–1784: Felice Giardini and his Contemporaries (New York and London, 1989), 11.Google Scholar

114 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Gough Lond. 42 (6). Fascicle (7) comprises the Rules for 1764. These may have then been changed, for the copy has many alterations made in ink. See also, McVeigh, The Violinist, 29.Google Scholar

115 The financial details are in 12/1/1. The concert programmes, which are in 7/2/14, items 38, 26 and 30, are on paper 215 × 170 mm (approximate measurements as all are different).Google Scholar

116 I am grateful to Professor McVeigh for bringing this advertisement to my notice.Google Scholar

117 It depends whether the £2. 2s. 0d. difference between the accounts represents a single fee.Google Scholar

118 McVeigh, The Violinist, 29, and confirmed by him in correspondence.Google Scholar

119 See Appendix 11 for correspondence in 1777 between a financially distressed Frasi and Granville.Google Scholar

120 See Plate 4 below.Google Scholar

121 This may be Handel's ‘Pupille amate’ (Alessandro) rather than his ‘Pupille sdegnose’ (Muzio Scevola).Google Scholar

122 It is difficult to tell whether 27 or 28 is on top.Google Scholar

123 After a further five undistinguished lines and the heading, ‘Recitative Accompanied’, the fragment ends abruptly through the rest of the page being cut away.Google Scholar

124 See the next section.Google Scholar

125 7/2/15, pt 2, pp. 74–7 (used for headings) and 59–60 (for poem). The loose copy is in 12/1/6.Google Scholar

126 In [1785] Granville wrote to his brother John suggesting Hugh junior for the Durham lay clerk's place about to be vacated by Edward Meredith (13/1/S8) but Meredith continued until 1788. Instead Cox was appointed to St Paul's as a minor canon in 1787. In 13/1/C30 Granville strongly rebukes Cox for his drink problem.Google Scholar

127 7/2/14, items 35 and 27 respectively. They are on card, 95 × 65 mm (approx.).Google Scholar

128 McVeigh, The Violinist, 11 and 30.Google Scholar

129 See Plate 5 below.Google Scholar

130 The supposition that this was Thomas I, their father, has resulted in the Castle Society and King's Arms programmes being incorrectly catalogued. Although between 1753 and his death Thomas I was never in residence in Durham between 1 October and 29 October, it has been established above that Thomas II had a cure in London as well as one in Northumberland.Google Scholar

131 George Holmes, a former Lincoln Cathedral organist (1705–20), had been a Durham chorister (1688–96).Google Scholar

132 14/1/2, p. 17.Google Scholar

133 7/2/15, pt 1, numbered 101 (in ink) and 33 (pencil).Google Scholar

134 G.J. Armytage ed., The Baptismal, Marriage, and Burial Registers of the Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin at Durham, 1609–1896, Harleian Society 23 (London, 1897) has, ‘Thomas Bradford, physician’, buried 25 July 1768.Google Scholar

135 The last three words are an interlinear afterthought. William Paxton (1725–78) was Stephen's surviving elder brother. John Garth (1721–1810) has hitherto only been known on account of his edition with English text of The First Fifty Psalms Set to Music by Benedetto Marcello (1757–65) and other published works. My recent investigations (see the New DNB) have established the details of his life and of his career as a concert promoter (Stockton 1745–6, Durham 1746–72), and as a cellist, organist and music teacher active throughout the north of England.Google Scholar

136 For the Turk's Head concerts see the next page.Google Scholar

137 Mr Prowse was married to an older cousin of the Sharps. The links would become closer, for in 1759 he lent James £1, 000 and in 1762 his son George married Elizabeth (see pp. 6, 7 and Appendix 2).Google Scholar

138 Items marked † and ‡ were also performed in 1756 and 1774–6 respectively (see pp. 14 and 36–8). In an undated letter of this period James mentions that ‘O Lord give ear’ had been sung (7/2/15, pt 1, item 42).Google Scholar

139 The letter, in 7/2/15, pt 1, has two reference numbers: 28 (in pencil) and No. 116 (ink).Google Scholar

140 I am grateful to Professor McVeigh for drawing my attention to the two notices.Google Scholar

141 See p. 30.Google Scholar

142 The St Paul's records do not name its choristers. Starkey may be identifiable with the ‘Mr Starkie, Oxford’, who was an oboist at the 1784 Handel Festival; [British Library R.M.5.b.l.].Google Scholar

143 9/1/4. In telling of his attraction to Miss Lodge (his future wife) James recalls John's punning on her name.Google Scholar

144 See New Grove (2^nd edn, London, 2001), i, 330–2. For more about Alcock see p. 46 below.Google Scholar

145 The harp was said to be cross-strung-in 17/5/13 there is a now incomplete drawing of how the strings crossed-and Granville to have accompanied himself on it in his daily singing of the Psalms. In 13/4/1, B, pp. 94–8, Granville compares the tuning of the two sides, and reveals (p. 98) how on 11 October 1777 he had hired a pedal harp from a Mr Vogler at the rate of 1½ guineas for two months. Had he decided to buy it the full purchase price would have been 25 guineas, but he returned the instrument after about a week.Google Scholar

146 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 145.Google Scholar

147 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Appendix, xii-xiii; see p. 59 for what precedes this quotation.Google Scholar

148 This uncertainty will be resolved once the pitch of the instruments in the Bate Collection, Oxford, is established.Google Scholar

149 In making this assertion I have assumed that that the contributor was not Shield himself. There is a transcript of the extract quoted in 12/1/6.Google Scholar

150 The violinist Felice Giardini (1716–96).Google Scholar

151 Argent ed., Recollections of R.J.S. Stevens, 272 and 10.Google Scholar

152 Charles Burney, A General History of Music (1957 reprint), 999.Google Scholar

153 See 14/1/2, pp. 72–3 and 104 for the 1770 and 1775 references.Google Scholar

154 12/1/5. The timing of the concerts and the entries in the Harris diaries (see pp. 39–40) confirm that a poem about the barge has misleadingly been attached inside this book.Google Scholar

155 Her identity is confirmed by 23/1/6, William's Household Accounts, 1787–92. It describes relatives in familiar terms, and includes: ‘Stole at the Play My Purse with £2. 4. 6.‘ (opening 59). Other items in her hand include the larger Boat Book (12/1/1).Google Scholar

156 The last date is discussed on pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

157 See P.H. Highfill et al. eds, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, xiii (Carbondale, Illinois, 1991), and British Library R.M.5.b.1–4 (Handel Memorial Concert programmes).Google Scholar

158 The number in the ‘Citty Chamber’ is not stated, nor that of Boys' on 28 January 1776.Google Scholar

159 The book incorrectly gives ‘Sunday 6 February 1775‘.Google Scholar

160 Its comment, ‘in all 103 | record’, overlooks the attendance on 13 March 1774.Google Scholar

161 Items marked † and ‡ were also performed in 1756 and 1758 respectively (see pp. 14 and 31). Only the first occurrence in the 1770s is so marked.Google Scholar

162 Flutes are equated with ‘Tibiæ‘ in the family's music catalogue, US-NYp Drexel 1022, p. P.Google Scholar

163 ‘Handel’ is followed by ‘9.21.’ As this is far too long a time for a performance of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, possibly it denotes when the concert ended.Google Scholar

164 The dates of this and the next two programmes are determined from being on the pages opposite the names.Google Scholar

165 These manuscripts were purchased by the author of this article in 2001 from Julian Elloway (of Stroud) in order to present them, after some conservation work had been done, to The Chapter Library, Durham, to be with over 200 items of music which were owned by various members of the Sharp family. The books have now been accessioned as MS Mus. E40/1–6.Google Scholar

166 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, p. A8 and Sale Catalogue, Lot No. 27, respectively. For the latter, British Library, S.C.SOTHEBY.(1.), which has details of purchasers and prices paid, is to be preferred to the delicate copy in GLr 17/1/4. I am grateful to Dr David Griffiths of York University Library for drawing my attention to the British Library copy.Google Scholar

167 Lascelles, Granville Sharp, 119, and below, pp. 49 and 62.Google Scholar

168 For these happenings see NHr 364p/68, opening 58; GLr 13/1/A9 and 12/1/2; and pp. 41–2 below. I am grateful to the staff of Northamptonshire Record Office for informing me that included among the Wicken Parish records were a number of ledgers and cash books well worth consulting.Google Scholar

169 When it was attached cannot be determined. For the poem itself, see below nn 52–4.Google Scholar

170 See pp. 35–6.Google Scholar

171 Burrows and Dunhill ed., Music and Theatre in Handel's World, 826, 1009 and 803. I am grateful to Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill for drawing my attention to, and providing me with, the Sharp references in advance of their work being published.Google Scholar

172 Burrows and Dunhill ed., Music and Theatre in Handel's World, pp. 1008–9Google Scholar

173 See above, p. 24.Google Scholar

174 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 145; see above, p. 33.Google Scholar

175 Burrows and Dunhill ed., Music and Theatre in Handel's World, p. 670.Google Scholar

176 Ibid., p. 891.Google Scholar

177 Ibid., p. 670. The notes under 7 April 1772, however, mention that the Sharps' Visiting Book had the family present on 13 March 1774.Google Scholar

178 See above, p. 33. Shield is never named in the book as a guest, and only once-on 17 March 1782–as a performer.Google Scholar

179 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, pp. 139–57.Google Scholar

180 Seep. 36.Google Scholar

181 The three are under 12/1/2; the comment relating to the fourth is on 13/4/1, F, p. 19, the programme itself is now loose between pp. 18 and 19 and measures 230 × 180 mm (approx.)Google Scholar

182 See Plate 6 below.Google Scholar

183 This comment is added in ink to one of the three copies kept together.Google Scholar

184 See above, p. 38.Google Scholar

185 See Appendices 5, 8–10.Google Scholar

186 See above, p. 40.Google Scholar

187 The details are on a loose sheet located between 13/4/1, B, pp. 99 and 100.Google Scholar

188 The Plá brothers had works for 2 flutes, violins or oboes plus continuo published between 1760 and 1773.Google Scholar

189 13/4/2, H, p. 35. Granville, however, had not yet moved to his sister-in-law's to help her run the ironmongery business. William, who was not too well, was already spending more time at Fulham.Google Scholar

190 See pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

191 Argent ed., Recollections of R.J.S Stevens, 10 and 272.Google Scholar

192 For plans of the Leadenhall Street site see 12/2/8.Google Scholar

193 12/2/9, p. 16, and p. 70 below.Google Scholar

194 He occupied the position from 1782 to 1819. A Minute in the Dean & Chapter Act Book for 23 February 1793 notes that the leave was to commence on the 27 February. On 20 May, the date of the party at Fulham, a six-week extension was approved.Google Scholar

195 13/4/2, H, pp. 102 and 148.Google Scholar

196 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 143, for both quotations.Google Scholar

197 Ibid., Appendix, xv-xvi.Google Scholar

198 No instrumental composition by the Revd Phocion Henley (1728–64) is listed in either RISM or CPM. Henley and Thomas II are linked by being the only composers featured in Divine Harmony: being a Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (London, 1798). In a letter to Lord Feilding, dated 24 September [1798], Granville states that he had had Henley's Psalms printed (13/1/F3)–see p. 75.Google Scholar

199 Purcell, from Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drum: Welcome Song for King James, 1687; Zimmerman Henry Purcell 159, No. 335/5a.Google Scholar

200 See p. 32.Google Scholar

201 Burrows and Dunhill ed., Music and Theatre in Handel's World, p. 678.Google Scholar

202 So Elizabeth, 14/1/2, p. 85, which has ‘Prowa’.Google Scholar

203 12/1/1.Google Scholar

204 See p. 34, footnote 155.Google Scholar

205 See p. 22.Google Scholar

206 Had the yacht already been in the family's possession there were opportunities to mention it in earlier letters to General Oglethorpe (also in 13/1/O1). However, that of 26 May invites him to take tea on the barge, that of 14 June is devoid of nautical connotations, whilst that of 18–19 June imparts that the information that there was a club for some 80 owners of sailing craft on the Thames and that, known as the Cumberland Fleet, they competed annually for the Duke of Cumberland Cup.Google Scholar

207 The copy of the Sale Catalogue in 12/1/10 is in good condition, unlike those in 14/1/1. They render yacht as ‘Yatch’. With two lead-lined cisterns for its water closets the barge was very up-to-date.Google Scholar

208 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 144.Google Scholar

209 The names of the ‘crew’ are crushed together to the left of those of the instrumentalists and company. Child and Barrow were presumably stewards to William and James, though not necessarily in that order, because Final was Elizabeth's first footman (14/1/2, p. 112).Google Scholar

210 The loose sheet is in 14/1/1. On 18 February 1770 Elizabeth recalled, ‘Charles taken upon Tryal, & afterwards taken for Bro: James's Servant’ (14/1/2, p. 72).Google Scholar

211 A Wilson acted for William at the sale in 1792 of the contents of James's widow's house; see p. 70.Google Scholar

212 See pp. 32 and 46.Google Scholar

213 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, p. 39, Nos 1–2, and p. 42, No. 14. For No. 14 a duplicate set is also listed.Google Scholar

214 Punctuation is minimal, and the difference between upper case and lower case far from clear.Google Scholar

215 It must be remembered that it was their summer home, and not just a boat.Google Scholar

216 Granville states that the music took place in the evening.Google Scholar

217 There are three cuttings in 12/1/4. The second, which is quoted above, has minor differences from the other two. It, for example, omits ‘to’ before ‘her ladyship’; they miss the ‘e’ out of ‘Staines’, and have ‘lady Onslow’, ‘duke’, and ‘ladyship’. The transcripts in 12/1/8 and 16/1/1 wrongly identified the Monday evening as 25 August 1777.Google Scholar

218 Although the transcripts in 12/1/2, 12/1/8 and 16/1/1 state that the report appeared in The General Evening Post for 11–13 September 1777, that paper, unlike the cutting in 12/1/4, has ‘Royal’ and not ‘royal’.Google Scholar

219 D'Ageno attended the Sunday concert on 7 February 1779, and is listed among those who ‘did not come’ to the glee evening on 10 March [? April] 1783.Google Scholar

220 See p. 39.Google Scholar

221 Charles Beecher Hogan ed., The London Stage, Part V/1 (Carbondale, 1968), 265 and 350, states that the text was never published. The plot, provided in The London Magazine for July 1779 (pp. 305–7), makes no mention of a barge.Google Scholar

222 For a copy see British Library E.255. Viscount Gladstone, The Story of the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club (London, 1930), 51, gives the source for the anecdote as a footnote to an article on Horsley's Glees in the quarterly Musical Review for 1820. None of the Sharps was ever a member of the Club.Google Scholar

223 The poems are in 12/1/6.Google Scholar

224 See pp. 47–8. The sale catalogue (12/1/10 used rather than 14/1/1, which is in delicate condition) describes the challoupe as 18 feet long × 6 feet wide, the ferry boat as 52 feet × 18 feet.Google Scholar

225 A cutting is preserved in 12/1/4.Google Scholar

226 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 144, footnote.Google Scholar

227 14/1/2, p. 143.Google Scholar

228 NHr 364p/67–69 (see p. 7, footnote 54). There are also two cash books, 364p/70–1, covering 1774–1814.Google Scholar

229 364p/67, opening 22.Google Scholar

230 364p/67, opening 22 records the payment, and opening 5 the crediting of James's account.Google Scholar

231 GLr 14/1/2Google Scholar

232 NHr, e.g., 364p/67, openings 23 and 24, and 364p/68, openings 23 and 133. The variants of Sealey are numerous.Google Scholar

233 364p/67, opening 24.Google Scholar

234 364p/68, opening 24.Google Scholar

235 364p/68, opening 28. See pp. 9–10 for the discussion about the portrait instrument.Google Scholar

236 364p/69, openings 3 and 31.Google Scholar

237 NHr 364p/69, openings 145, 1, 28, 30 and 32. Elizabeth had trouble spelling this word.Google Scholar

238 Anne Elizabeth Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 2 vols (Northampton, 1854), ii, 170.Google Scholar

239 GLr 14/1/2, p. 69 and NHr 364p/67, opening 72.Google Scholar

240 NHr 364p/68, opening 23, and GLr 13/4/2, G, 48.Google Scholar

241 GLr 14/1/2, pp. 101 (map) 102–3 and 40 (itinerary).Google Scholar

242 Much Ado about Nothing, Act 2, Scene 3, line 41 is, ‘As hush'd on purpose …‘Google Scholar

243 NHr 364p/70, which has no system of pagination, records the payment for two of James's rolling carts on 7 May 1776.Google Scholar

244 See pp. 48–9.Google Scholar

245 Her accounts books were deposited at Northamptonshire Record Office as part of the Wicken Church archive.Google Scholar

246 E.g., NHr 364p/68, openings 2, 57, 59, 60 and 106.Google Scholar

247 364p/68, openings 3 and 27 (March transaction, entered in April), and opening 56 (April payment).Google Scholar

248 364p/67, opening 35, repeated on opening 75, where it comes under 11 April and the amount is £1. 10s. 6d. Cuthbert Brass (d. 1781), a long-serving Durham lay clerk and music copyist, had helped set up the organ her father had acquired in 1752 (see p. 15, footnote 89).Google Scholar

249 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Appendix, xii.Google Scholar

250 The Arnold edition was published in London, 1787–97. John Sharp's set, Bamburgh Music M1–44, has differences in format and in the contents of some of the volumes when compared with Chapter Music E1–40. As John died in 1792 he never enjoyed the full set.Google Scholar

251 13/4/2, H, p. 25. See p. 62 for music-making elsewhere during the tour.Google Scholar

252 William Evance, a Durham lay clerk from 1767 to 1828 may have been ‘prentice little Evans’ associated in 1758 with the Sharps' London concerts (see p. 32). George Ashton (1751–1837), as a chorister and lay clerk, was associated with the Durham choir for 79 years.Google Scholar

253 I am grateful to Roz Southey for drawing my attention to these concerts and to the report in The Newcastle Advertiser for 5 May 1792 of the death of John Sharp on 28 April and his burial on 3 May: ‘At the entrance of the Cloisters, the body was met by the whole choir, who sung before it the sentences appointed in the burial service. The evening service then began, in the course of which, a selection of some of the most solemn parts of the Messiah were performed. The corpse was then conveyed to the vault in the Virgin Mary's chapel, at the west end of the church, when the choir again sung the sentences of ‘Man that is born of a woman’, &c.'Google Scholar

254 Thomas Ebdon (1738–1811), a former chorister and lay clerk, had succeeded James Hesletine, the Sharps' uncle, as organist in 1763.Google Scholar

255 In the P.S. added to a letter to John in 1758 Granville has: ‘Pray send me word How John Read goes on with his Singing’ (7/2/15, pt 1, item 32). As Read was never a member of Durham Cathedral choir, one wonders whether he had any connection with Hartburn.Google Scholar

256 James Raine, A Memoir of the Rev. John Hodgson, 2 vols (London, 1858), ii, p. 337, unnumbered footnote.Google Scholar

257 12/1/3; cf., entry below for 30 August 1763. Secker had been a prebendary of Durham, 1727–50.Google Scholar

258 In the list of subscribers to James Kent, Twelve Anthems (London, 1773), he is described as a minor canon of Winchester.Google Scholar

259 See also p. 55.Google Scholar

260 NHr 364p/67, opening 35, cf., opening 75.Google Scholar

261 For copies of the four years' programmes see Library, British, R.M.5.b.1–4. The first of these (for 1784) lacks the list of subscribers, as does Durham University Library, Bamburgh Collection, F.V.10.4. The various Sharps named as instrumentalists were not members of this family.Google Scholar

262 William Becher (c.1742–1821) was a prebendary of Southwell, 1778–1821; Venn and Venn eds, Alumni Cantabrigienses.Google Scholar

263 See p. 59.Google Scholar

264 Friend (lay clerk, 1782–1819) and Hayes (minor canon, 1758–1819) were both associated with the cathedral. In 13/5/26 are the printed words of the song, ‘Still Britian reigns at Heaven's command’, the text by John Friend and sung by Thomas Acton (Durham lay clerk, 1781–1817). At the time of the 1805 visit Joseph Boruwlaski (1739–1837), a violin-playing dwarf of Polish extraction, had still to make Durham his final home.Google Scholar

265 23/1/6 and 23/1/7.Google Scholar

266 9/1/3Google Scholar

267 The organ he had worked on at Rothbury in 1752 (see p. 15, footnote 89) is discounted on the grounds that it may have been for the church there.Google Scholar

268 GLr 7/2/6.Google Scholar

269 The background is explored further and the Finch items identified in Crosby, Catalogue of Durham Cathedral Music Manuscripts, xxi-xxvi, and 82–93 (passim), respectively.Google Scholar

270 Durham Cathedral MSS M174 (ii) (loose sheet) and M194, and GLr 9/1/12. For Friend see p. 63, footnote 264.Google Scholar

271 17/1/4. It is kept together with the Sale Catalogue of the rest of ‘his’ library. That Sale consisted of 1875 lots and occupied eight days, starting on 22 November 1813.Google Scholar

272 23/1/8. It was also agreed that if one of them should become insolvent the same situation was to apply.Google Scholar

273 British Library, S.C.SOTHEBY.(1.). The purchasers are named in Appendix 14.Google Scholar

274 The summary information is presented in US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, pp. C-H; the identity of the evaluers is on p. G. The firm changed its name in 1798. The catalogue is discussed in Holland and LaRue, ‘The Sharp Manuscript, London 1759–c1793‘.Google Scholar

275 Pp. 166–7 have not been lost. While they were still blank they were removed and inserted after p. 71 when the space allocated to the section there proved to be insufficient.Google Scholar

276 See above, p. 15.Google Scholar

277 The item is Henry Playford's, Divine Companion. The 1701 edition was dedicated to their grandfather.Google Scholar

278 Glasgow University Library, Euing MS R.d.39.Google Scholar

279 With the rib running horizontally under the apex of the vault, the organ depicted is that of Westminster Abbey, not Durham. The quotations are from Psalms 33, (v. 1b, ? Granville's own translation), 46 (combination of parts of vv. 6 and 7), and 104, v. 33.Google Scholar

280 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, p. 170.Google Scholar

281 Catharine made other donations to York in 1807, 1810 and 1827.Google Scholar

282 12/2/9.Google Scholar

283 Apart from members of the family, who acquired the items without cost, I have included the purchaser and what was paid only in connection with the Father Smith organ.Google Scholar

284 23/1/18, which is not paginated. It includes the books which had been removed from his brother John's houses at Durham and Hartburn after John died in 1792.Google Scholar

286 The passages of text found between { and } are found in the ‘Advertisement’ in the British Library copy, where words underlined in 7/2/15 are given in italics.Google Scholar

287 13/5/25.Google Scholar

288 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp, 139 (footnote); not in 13/1/B11 or 13/1/B12.Google Scholar

289 US-NYp Drexel MS 1022, pp. 171 and 172.Google Scholar

290 Among the manuscripts are Ely MS 23 (Cambridge University Library) and Tenbury MS 813 (Bodleian Library, Oxford). The second chant in the printed collection is by Edward Finch.Google Scholar

291 The ascribed items are in Durham MS M89, the unascribed in MS M90. Some of the text of the latter was transcribed by Thomas II. Both manuscripts are in the Bamburgh collection; see Crosby, Catalogue of Durham Cathedral Music Manuscripts, 83–4, and 213–14. It was at St Nicholas's church, Newcastle, that he was both married and buried.Google Scholar

292 Some of Henley's compositions were sung at the Sharps' concerts: see pp. 36–7. He was also known to the family, for in noting his death Catharine, in her selections (14/1/1) from her aunt Elizabeth's diary, describes him as ‘My Brother's Freind’. This prompts the question, ‘Which brother?‘Google Scholar

293 13/1/F3; the year is determinable from other correspondence with Lord Feilding.Google Scholar

294 Lascelles, Granville Sharp, 120. He identifies the song as ‘Delightful Stream-That Life might pass’, and gives its text. See 13/5/26 for it and a number of songs (texts only).Google Scholar

295 It was given to me by Daniel Englund, an American researcher who arrived in Durham in September 2001 to work for a Ph.D. on ‘The Life and Thought of Granville Sharp.‘ He had located an original copy via the internet in an antiquarian bookshop. He has generously given me permission to make known the existence of the hymn and also to reproduce it (see Appendix 13).Google Scholar

296 I am grateful to the staff of Bedfordshire and Luton Record Office for directing me to HO: B/M 1, Minutes of Proceedings, and HO: B/A 1, Bedford Infirmary Annual Reports, 1801–50. In the latter, under ‘Donations and Annual Subscriptions’ for the period from 25 June to 25 December 1802, the Report of ‘A General Meeting of Subscribers of Bedford Infirmary’ held on Wednesday 12th July 1803 has: ‘By Mr. G. Sharp, being the Profits of a Hymn composed by him on the Institution’, £2. Is. 6d. It should also be noted that in the Report of the ‘General Meeting of the Governors’, held on 18 July 1807, there is under ‘Donations and Legacies’: ‘Mr. G. Sharp, (profits of an Hymn composed by him)‘, £5. 0s. 0d. This is such a round sum that one suspects that Granville may have included a more personal element.Google Scholar

297 NHr 364p/68, opening 134, and 364p/70.Google Scholar

298 King, Some British Collectors of Music, 29–30.Google Scholar

299 In particular, the approach to the Sharps' extensive correspondence has relied much on instinct.Google Scholar

299 Where possible, family records have been checked against Parish Registers.Google Scholar

300 Granville states (13/4/2, H, p. 74) that this date was on the metal plate discovered when John was buried in 1792.Google Scholar

302 Elizabeth Harris states in corespondence that protocol required her husband to act as Pacchierotti's accompanist (see above, p. 39).Google Scholar

303 On the evening of 7 September 1777 the party left the yacht for music at Lady Onslow's. There the Duke of Cumberland played the 1st violin, assisted by Bomgarten, Simpson and Waterhouse, all described as of his band. Elizabeth Sharp accompanied when required, and young Catharine sang.Google Scholar

304 13/4/1, C, pp. 45–6 and two in 13/5/15, with one of the latter very much a draft version; and ‘Ridden's Topographical Collections: St Paul's Cathedral’ (Guildhall Library MS 22298).Google Scholar

305 The seeds for this idea lie in Elizabeth's remark (14/1/2, p. 28) that her brothers had ‘Joyned the Quire’ for the coronation of George III, even though she was probably referring only to the area in which they sat.Google Scholar

306 13/1/W18.Google Scholar

307 Befordshire and Luton Archives and Record Services, HO: B/A 1. See pp. 76–7.Google Scholar

308 The basis of my examination of Granville's extensive correspondence has been somewhat intuitive. A more thorough search may reveal other items of musical significance.Google Scholar