1 See Brian Boydell ed., Four Centuries of Music in Ireland (London, 1979); id., A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin, 1988); and id., Rotunda Music in Eighteenth-Century Dublin (Dublin, 1992).Google Scholar

2 Donald H. Boalch and Charles Mould ed., Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440–1840 (3rd edition, Oxford, 1995).Google Scholar

3 John Teahan, ‘A List of Irish Instrument Makers’, The Galpin Society Journal, 16 (1963), 28–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 One of the surviving harpsichords is inscribed ‘FERDINANDVS WEBER 2 FECIT LONDINI 1746‘. However, it has not been possible to trace Weber in any of the Rate Books for the Parish of St Anne, Soho (where Shudi is known to have lived between 1739 and 1742) or for the Parish of St James, Piccadilly (where both Shudi and Kirkman resided for most of the 1740s) for the year 1746. Unfortunately, Trade Directories for this period are of no use since they list merchants and not craftsmen. In addition, Professor Rosamond McGuinness has been unable to trace Weber in any of the London newspapers for the period 1735–50.Google Scholar

5 Although various writers have stated that Weber resided in Werburgh Street in 1739 it has not been possible to verify this. The earliest date for Weber residing in Dublin, substantiated by Dr Barra Boydell, is 1749.Google Scholar

6 Dublin Courant, 3 November 1750.Google Scholar

7 Teahan, ‘A List of Irish Instrument Makers’, 31–2.Google Scholar

8 We record our thanks to Mr Francis Herbert and Ms Sharon Martins of the Royal Geographical Society for their help.Google Scholar

9 Raymond Refaussé, The Register of the Parish of St Thomas, Dublin 1750 to 1791 (Dublin, 1994), 106.Google Scholar

10 The copy of Rachel Weber's will (made by Victor E. Smyth) is lodged at the National Archives, Bishop Street, Dublin, Document reference number T.775.Google Scholar

11 Representative Church Body Library, Pew Register: Parish of St Thomas, P.80 9.2.Google Scholar

12 Denise Neary, ‘Music in Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Dublin Churches’ (MA dissertation, National University of Ireland, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, 1995), 76.Google Scholar

13 Grindle, W.H., Irish Cathedral Music: A History of Music at the Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland (Belfast, 1989), 157.Google Scholar

14 Brian Boydell, ‘Organs Associated with Handel's Visit to Dublin’, British Institute of Organ Studies, 19 (1996), 62.Google Scholar

15 Two early eighteenth-century English instruments with the compass GG to g³ are: the harpsichord built by William Smith (Bate Collection, University of Oxford, No. 974) and the harpsichord made by Benjamin Slade (Mirrey Collection, London). There are also two Irish harpsichords built by Henry Rother, which ascend to g³. These are an upright harpsichord built in Dublin in 1774, with the compass FF, GG to g³ (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, NMIDF 1902.504) and a harpsichord of unknown date with the compass GG to g³ (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, without serial number). Our grateful thanks to Dr Grant O'Brien for drawing our attention to the Slade harpsichord.Google Scholar

16 To be published as part of ‘The Historical Harpsichord’ Series, edited by John Koster (Pendragon Press).Google Scholar

17 We are most grateful to Laurence Libin (Research Curator, Metropolitan Museum, New York) for drawing our attention to this instrument. See Libin, Laurence, ‘Ein bemerkenswertes Tafelklavier von Ferdinand Weber’, Musica Instrumentalis, 3 (2000), 143–6. See also Martha Clinkscale, Makers of the Piano 1700–1820 (Oxford, 1993), 318.Google Scholar

18 Rachel Marsh (born 1840, née Smyth) was Ferdinand Weber's great granddaughter.Google Scholar

19 W.H. Grattan Flood, ‘The Dublin Society for the Support of Decayed Musicians’, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 43 (1913), 144–50; and id., ‘The Account-Book of a Dublin Harpsichord Maker, Ferdinand Weber, 1764 to 1783‘, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 44 (1914), 338–47.Google Scholar

20 Boydell, Rotunda Music, 55.Google Scholar

21 Aubrey Toppin, ‘The China Trade and some London Chinamen’, English Ceramic Circle Transactions, 3 (1935), 42.Google Scholar

22 Robin Reilly, Josiah Wedgwood (London, 1992), 210–11.Google Scholar

23 Constantia Maxwell, Dublin under the Georges 1714–1830 (Dublin, 1936; repr. 1979), 139.Google Scholar

24 Boydell, Rotunda Music, 94.Google Scholar

25 Boydell, Dublin Musical Calendar, 231, 277, 279, 281–2.Google Scholar

26 Alec Cobbe, ‘Beethoven, Haydn and an Irish Genius: William Southwell of Dublin’, Irish Arts Review, 13 (1997), 77.Google Scholar

27 Crockfords Clerical Directory 1998/99 (95th edition, London, 1998–99).Google Scholar

28 The Dictionary of National Biography (suppl., London, 1973).Google Scholar

29 The earliest surviving English piano was made by Zumpe in London in 1766 and the first known public performance on a piano in the British Isles was given by Henry Walsh in Dublin on 19 May 1768; Virginia Pleasants, ‘The Early Piano in Britain (c. 1760–1800)‘, Early Music, 13 (1985), 39–44. If entries for piano tunings, which occur from 1765 onwards (Mrs David Latouche) relate to instruments made by Weber, then he was one of the first piano makers in this country. As a native of Saxony it is probable that he was familiar with the pianos of Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 There are many references to Weber in the archives of various Dublin churches. Since an exhaustive investigation of all of them is beyond the scope of this article, comments relate only to those references which have been published (including Barra Boydell, ‘St. Michan's Church, Dublin: The Installation of the Organ in 1725 and the Duties of the Organist’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 19 (1995), 74–96; id., Music at Christ Church before 1800: Documents and Selected Anthems (Dublin, 1999); and Denise Neary, ‘Organ-Building in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Dublin, and its English Connection’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 21 (1997), 20–7.Google Scholar

31 There is only one entry for supplying a harpsichord to the Rotunda (May 1778) and one entry for supplying a harpsichord to the Lying-in Hospital (19 April to 4 October 1777). However, we know from the Rotunda accounts that Weber was supplying a harpsichord (as well as tuning the Snetzler organ) for them for most years between 1769 and 1784. The first appearance of a piano (in addition to the harpsichord) in the Rotunda accounts was in 1775 (Boydell, Rotunda Music, 191).Google Scholar

32 Information from Dr Bruce Haynes, personal correspondence.Google Scholar

33 Grant O'Brien, ‘The Double-Manual Harpsichord by Francis Coston, London, c.1725‘, The Galpin Society Journal, 47 (1994), 2–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 William Manwaring, for example, advertised Schuchart's German flutes, as well as violins by Wamsley and Smith for sale at his music shop in College Green in 1743, 1747, 1749, 1753 and 1754; see Boydell, Dublin Musical Calendar, 94, 112, 127, 186, 194. Johan and Charles Schuchart (father and son) were active in London between 1731 and 1767; see Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-instrument Makers and Inventors (London, 1993), 363–4. Peter Wamsley flourished in London c. 1725–45 and was succeeded by Thomas Smith; see René Vannes, Dictionnaire Universel des Luthiers (Brussels, 1972), 336, 388.Google Scholar

35 From about 1700 to 1870 most furniture making firms in London employed between one and ten people; Pat Kirkham, The London Furniture Trade 1700–1870 (Leeds, 1988), 72.Google Scholar

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