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Unmasking ‘Thomas Tudway’: A New Identity for a Seventeenth-Century Windsor Copyist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Extract

Almost thirty years ago John Morehen noted the presence of a common hand in four important pre-Commonwealth sources of sacred music: Pembroke College, Cambridge MSS Mus. 6.1–6 (six part-books; hereafter Cpc 6.1–6); St George's Chapel, Windsor MSS 18–20 (three partbooks; WRch 18–20); British Library, Harley MS 4142 (a wordbook; Lbl Harl. 4142); and Christ Church, Oxford Mus. 1220–4 (five partbooks; Och 1220–4). All four sources appeared to date from the early 1640s. Morehen also observed that the same scribe subsequently copied the earliest post-Restoration part-books at Windsor (WRch 1 and 2). Identifying the copyist(s) is a crucial stage in the study of the sources, with important implications for provenance, date and function, as well as their authority relative to other sources of the period.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1999

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Footnotes

1

I am indebted to the staff of the following libraries for their help in connection with the research for this article: Pembroke College, Cambridge; Manuscripts Dept., Cambridge University Library; Exeter Cathedral Archives; Eton College; Gloucester Cathedral; Bodleian Library, Oxford; Christ Church, Oxford; St John's College, Oxford; St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. I am also grateful to Dr Robert Thompson for advice concerning watermarks; to Prof. John Morehen and Dr Andrew Ashbee for their generous assistance; and to Prof. Tim Carter, Mr Stephen Lloyd and Prof. Ian Spink, who read the early drafts and provided many helpful comments.

References

Footnotes

2 John Morehen, ‘The Sources of English Cathedral Music, c.l617–c. l644’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1969), 347–89. See also Clifford Mould, The Musical Manuscripts of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Historical Monographs Relating to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, xiv (Windsor, 1973); Neville Wridgway, The Choristers of St George's Chapel (Slough, 1980), 49; Ian Cheverton, ‘English Church Music of the Early Restoration Period, 1660–c. 1676; (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wales, Cardiff, 1985); Christopher G.P. Batchelor, ‘William Child: An Examination of the Liturgical Sources and a Critical and Contextual Study of the Church Music’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1989), 3, 50–1, 348, 430–62; Ian Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660–1714 (Oxford, 1995), 372.Google Scholar

3 The earliest post-Restoration set of partbooks at St George's, Windsor, comprises six volumes: WRch 1 (Countertenor Decani), WRch la (Countertenor Cantoris), WRch 2 (Countertenor Decani), WRch 2a (Countertenor Decani), WRch 3 (Tenor Cantoris) and WRch 4 (Bassus Decani). For complete inventories of these manuscripts, see Dexter, Keri, ‘The Provision of Choral Music at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and Eton College, c. 1640–1733’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 2000), 444–523. Batchelor was the first scholar to observe correctly that only WRch 1 and 2 contain the hand of the pre-Commonwealth scribe (see ‘William Child', 430–42). The remaining four volumes were begun by a second copyist, at various points between 1680 and c. 1702; he also undertook the final work in WRch 1 and 2 (see Dexter, ‘Provision of Choral Music’, 185–6).Google Scholar

4 Thurston Dart, ‘Henry Loosemore's Organ-Book’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 3/2 (1960), 148.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, his identification of the hand of Henry Palmer (Durham Cathedral). Morehen, ‘Sources of English Cathedral Music’, 26.Google Scholar

6 Morehen, ‘Sources of English Cathedral Music’, 357.Google Scholar

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8 Payments in the post-Restoration cathedral disbursement books can be equated with subsequent additions to the part-books. See Morehen, ‘Sources of English Cathedral Music’, 353–5. See also Cheverton, ‘English Church Music’, 414–20; Robert Shay, ‘“Naturalizing” Palestrina and Carissimi in late Seventeenth-Century Oxford: Henry Aldrich and his Recompositions’, Music & Letters, 77 (1996), 368400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 The exact date of his appointment is not recorded. The Windsor Treasurer's Rolls generally list the lay-clerks in order of appointment. In the account for 1628–9 (WRch XV.59.39 and the first in which his name appears) Tudway is listed between [Thomas] ‘Piers’ (appointed 18 May 1622) and [Tobias] ‘Burton’ (appointed 12 January 1625/6).Google Scholar

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16 WRch R1 (Chapel Registers). In April 1664, he applied (unsuccessfully) for promotion to a petty canonry; it was a misreading of this entry in the Chapter Acts which previously caused confusion regarding Tudway's pre-Commonwealth links with the St George's choir. See Shelagh M. Bond, The Chapter Acts of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, 1430, 1523–1672, Historical Monographs Relating to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, xiii (Windsor, 1966), 249–50.Google Scholar

17 First noted by Cheverton; see ‘English Church Music’, 414.Google Scholar

18 WRec 62/11, p. 356; WRec 62/11, p. 353–62/12, p. 212 passim.Google Scholar

19 Eton College (WRec) 62/11, p. 358 (Audit book, 1663).Google Scholar

20 See note 2. Although several of these scholars corrected minor details in Morehen's argument—principally concerning Tudway's biography—none of them challenged his overall conclusions.Google Scholar

21 John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (2nd edn, London, 1875; repr. 1963), 679.Google Scholar

22 They were also accompanied by Henry Puddefoot, a chorister at St George's from 1635 to 1642, who did not return to Windsor at the Restoration. For a full account of Amner, Howes and Pennial's careers, see Ashbee, Andrew, David Lasocki, Peter Holman and Fiona Kisby eds, A Biographical Dictionary of English Court Musicians, 1485–1714, 2 vols (Aldershot, 1998), 20–2, 597600, 876–8. For Puddefoot at Windsor, see Dexter, ‘Provision of Choral Music’, 343; for the membership of the post-Restoration Windsor choir, see idem, 92–8.Google Scholar

23 WRch VI. B.2, f. 124.Google Scholar

24 Exeter Cathedral (EXc) Registers. Information kindly supplied by Mrs Angela Doughty of the Devon Record Office (private correspondence, 8 September 1997).Google Scholar

25 EXc 3553, 3556 (Chapter Act Books). The 14 ‘secondaries’ were appointed by the Dean. See Laud's Visitation of 1634 in Fourth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (1874), 136–9.Google Scholar

26 International Genealogical Index (IGI), Fiche no. A 0416.Google Scholar

27 EXc 3556, pp. 43 and 51.Google Scholar

28 It seems likely that the set also originally contained volumes for Medius Cantoris, Secundus Contratenor Decani, and Primus and Secundus Contratenor Cantoris; it may also have included an organ book.Google Scholar

29 Ralph T. Daniel and Peter Le Huray, The Sources of English Cathedral Music, 1549–1660, Early English Church Music, Supplementary Volume 1 (London, 1972).Google Scholar

30 A degenerate version of the arms of France and Navare, with ‘M Envrin’ below. It is also found in a Hollar drawing dating from c.1640; See Heawood, E., Watermarks, mainly of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century (rev. edn, Amsterdam, 1970), no. 660. I am grateful to Dr Robert Thompson for further advice concerning this watermark (private correspondence, 17 September 1997).Google Scholar

31 Oxford, Bodleian Library (Ob) Ashmole MS 115, f. 47.Google Scholar

32 Le Huray suggested that John Farrant may have composed the psalms specifically for Pembroke College; see Huray, PeterLe, ‘Towards a definitive study of pre-Restoration Anglican Service Music’, Musica Disciplina, 14 (1960), 167–95, 183. The only member of the Farrant family known to have been associated with Windsor was Richard Farrant, who was organist and master of the choristers at St George's Chapel between April 1564 and November 1580.Google Scholar

33 WRch VI.B.2, ff. 116v, 118v, 140v.Google Scholar

34 Philippe Oboussier, ‘Robert Parsons (ii)‘, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 29 vols (2nd edn, London, 2001), xix, 163.Google Scholar

35 London, Public Record Office (Lpro) PROB 11/339, f. 84. Parsons' three sons received a further £40 between them.Google Scholar

36 WRch VI.B.2, f. 131v.Google Scholar

37 Watermark = Heawood, no. 588, which he dates to 1637. See Heawood, Watermarks.Google Scholar

38 The following manuscripts have been examined in the search for scribal concordance: Peterhouse, Cambridge (Cp) MSS 475–81, 485–91; Ob Mus. Sch. C.9; Ob Mus. Sch. C.10; Ob Mus. Sch. C.54; Ob Mus. Sch. C.87; Ob Mus. Sch. C.204; Ob Mus. Sch. E.451; Och Mus. 6; Och Mus. 47; Och Mus. 88; Och Mus. 92; Och Mus. 437; Och Mus. 438; Och Mus. 525; Och Mus. 1001; Och Mus. 1215; Och Mus. 1219; St John's College, Oxford (Ojc) MS 315. The following known scribes have been eliminated: Stephen Bing, Henry Bowman, William Ellis, Christopher Gibbons, Richard Goodson jnr, Richard Goodson snr, William Husbands, George Jeffreys, John Lilly, Edward Lowe and William Saunders.Google Scholar

39 Le Huray, ‘Pre-Restoration Anglican Service Music’.Google Scholar

40 Ibid., 181; see also J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigiensis (Cambridge, 1922), I/iii, 166. For Sir Humphrey May, see Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1894), xxxvii, 140–1.Google Scholar

41 Information supplied by Miss J.S. Ringrose, Pembroke College archivist (private correspondence, 12 March 1998).Google Scholar

42 Cheverton states that the average payment for music copying during the 1660s was 3d per side; see ‘English Church Music’, 258, note 39. Each partbook comprises approximately 140 sides: the cost of copying ten volumes would therefore be around £17 15s, which excludes the additional costs of paper and binding.Google Scholar

43 It is the author's contention that Matthew Wren may prove to be a more significant figure in the partbooks' early history, though the precise nature of his role is unclear. Wren currently provides the only-known link between St George's Chapel and Pembroke College: he was a fellow of Pembroke from 1605 until his death in 1668, and Dean of Windsor between July 1627 and March 1635. After leaving Windsor, he held the Bishoprics of Hereford, Norwich and Ely (1638–68) and served as Dean of the Chapels Royal (1636–41). Wren remained a lifelong benefactor of Pembroke: he was largely instrumental in the building of a new chapel there in the early 1660s (designed by his nephew, Christopher), and presented a book or manuscript to the library every year from 1617 until his death. Research into Wren's role as an active patron of choral music is ongoing; as yet, no definite conclusions can be drawn. See Ollard, S.L., Fasti Wyndesonnienses: The Dean and Canons of Windsor, Historical Monographs Relating to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, vii (Windsor, 1950), 46–7; A. Attwater, Pembroke College, Cambridge: a Short History (Cambridge, 1936), 65–6. Also Cpc Library Benefactor's Book, which includes no reference to music manuscripts.Google Scholar

44 A pair of posts with grapes between. Other examples have been dated between 1634 and 1638; see Thompson, Robert, ‘English Music Manuscripts and the Fine Paper Trade, 1648–1688’ (Ph.D. dissertation, King's College, University of London, 1988), 88 and 91; E. Heawood, ‘Paper used in Engliand after 1600: I The Seventeenth Century to c.1680', The Library, 11 (1930–1), 263–99 (figures 70–5).Google Scholar

45 They form a separate gathering (ff. 165–196v) in the middle of WRec 62/59, a miscellaneous volume of accounts for Eton College, dated 1635–46, and were discovered by the author. Their presence here probably arose due to Eton College and St George's Chapel sharing a chapter clerk at this time.Google Scholar

46 All from WRec 62/59, f. 192.Google Scholar

47 Woodson was a lay-clerk at St George's from 22 January 1598/9 until the expulsion of the Chapel community; he also served as Organist of Eton College from 1613 until his death, in 1646. Bond, Chapter Acts, 34–5; Wridgeway, Choristers of St George's (Slough, 1980), 36–8; WRec 62/8–10 (Audit Books). I am grateful to Dr Andrew Ashbee for supplying the date of Woodson's death.Google Scholar

48 Morehen, ‘Sources of English Cathedral Music’, 369.Google Scholar

49 Maurice F. Bond, The Inventories of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Historical Monographs Relating to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, vii (Windsor, 1947), 240.Google Scholar

50 Journal of the House of Lords, vi, 30, 44, 57, 59.Google Scholar

51 Lbl Add. 31460, ff. 1v–2 (Biography of Child by Philip Hayes, Heather Professor of Music, Oxford University).Google Scholar

52 For details of Kelway's career, see Dexter, ‘Provision of Choral Music’, 322; for his copying work, see idem, 178–80, 192–8, 203–10, 220–7, 231.Google Scholar

53 Kelway's hand in the registers had previously been identified by Rachel Poyser, see Edmund H. Fellows and E.R. Poyser, The Baptism and Marriage Registers of St George's Chapel, Windsor, Historical Monographs relating to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, x (Windsor, 1957), p. 10, note. WRch XIII.B.3, a treasurer's volume for the period 1690–1761; the lay-clerks and minor canons sign for receipt of burial fees, and for attendance at morning prayer.Google Scholar

54 Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music, 373, 388–9. Other examples of Lamb's hand (including his signature) survive in organ books at Windsor, and at Eton College.Google Scholar

55 John Morehen, ‘The “Burden of Proof”: the Editor as Detective’, English Choral Practice, 1400–1650, ed. John Morehen (Cambridge, 1995), 200–20, partic. 215–18 and note 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 WRch XIII.B.2, p. 9.Google Scholar

57 These are listed in WRch XII.B.3.Google Scholar

58 The fact that two scribes collaborated on Child's burial anthem, ‘ I heard a voice’, raises the possibility that it was hurriedly composed (and copied) for a particular funeral at St George's Chapel; perhaps this was the burial—on 27 July 1670—of John Heaver (Canon of St George's, Vicar of New Windsor, Fellow of Eton College, and a keen musician)? When he died, Heaver bequeathed £5 to be divided amongst the Windsor choir; a small organ to Eton College; and his music books to the Eton organist, Edmund Sleech (a former Windsor chorister); see WRch XIII.B.2, pp. 3941.Google Scholar

59 Lbl Harley 7338, f. 25v.Google Scholar

60 The watermark is a Strasbourg pattern of a fleur-de-lys on a crowned shield, with ‘WR 4+‘ below. It was used throughout the 1640s and 1650s, and is found in a number of sources with Oxford connections. Thus, although consistent with a date in the early 1640s, it does not, in itself, help to narrow the time window.Google Scholar

61 Alternatively, Irishe may have copied the partbooks in Windsor, with the finished books then being transported to Oxford.Google Scholar

62 WRec 62/59, ff. 197–317 passim.Google Scholar

63 Watkins Shaw, The Succession of Organists of the Chapel Royal and the Cathedrals of England and Wales from c.1538 (Oxford, 1991), 109.Google Scholar

64 Such a scenario would appear plausible if the Windsor partbooks were indeed destroyed in May 1643 (see above page 102). Professional copyists later in the seventeenth century, such as John Gostling, possessed similar volumes, which could take the form of a large scorebook (e.g. the ‘Gostling Manuscript’, currently in Austin, Texas) or a set of partbooks (e.g. Ob Tenbury 1176–82, also by Gostling, or the York Minster ‘Bing-Gostling Partbooks’, YM.1/1–8).Google Scholar

65 Robert C. Latham and William Matthews eds, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 11 vols (London, 1970–83), vii, 58.Google Scholar

66 Posthorn on a decorated shield, with the legend ‘DVRAND’. W. A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper (Amsterdam, 1935). In his chronological list of Dutch marks (pp. 1112), Churchill dates the introduction of the posthorn to 1643.Google Scholar

67 Wanley was Harley's librarian. See C.E. Wright and R.C. Wright eds, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 2 vols (London, 1966).Google Scholar

68 Cheverton, ‘English Church Music’, 373 and 414.Google Scholar

69 Even if one assumes that the entire contents of both Cpc 6.1–6 and Och 1220–4 were included in the Windsor repertory (with the exception of the anthem by Lowe), it is impossible to ascertain what additional works were included in the now-lost Windsor partbooks, but not copied into the Cambridge or Oxford sets.Google Scholar

70 Shaw, Succession of Organists, 108–9; J. Bunker Clark, ‘A Re-emerged Seventeenth Century Organ Accompaniment Book’, Music & Letters, 47 (1966), 149–52. The Exeter Cathedral Chapter Acts for 18 October 1634 record ‘Robert Lugg chorister to be appointed secondary in place of Zachary Irish’ (EXc 3556).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

71 WRch VI.B.3, pp. 1, 3. There is some evidence to suggest that he may have acted as such sometime after Easter 1642. Each petty canon acted as deputy to a specific canon, which may account for the note ‘Mr Irish assign'd to Dr Howell’; Bond, Chapter Acts, 209; WRch IV.B.17, f. 72.Google Scholar

72 WRch VI.B3, p. 83.Google Scholar

73 WRch XIII.B.2, pp. 370passim.Google Scholar

74 WRch 1, p. 48.Google Scholar

75 It only survives in Irishe's hand in WRch 2; in WRch 1, the final five pages copied by Irishe have been replaced by make-goods in the hand of Thomas Kelway. For full details of Irishe's work in these partbooks, see Dexter, ‘Provision of Choral Music’, 185–8, 199203, 444–56, 468–79.Google Scholar

76 See Ashbee et al, Biographical Dictionary, ii, 1162–4.Google Scholar

77 WRec 62/11, p. 359.Google Scholar

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79 Ely Cathedral, Dean and Chapter Archives (Cambridge University Library (Cul) EDC) 3/1/2, f. 333v.Google Scholar

80 Cited in Cheverton, ‘English Church Music’, 259. See also pp. 261–2, particularly note 43, for discussion of the links between the Ely choir and Windsor copyists.Google Scholar

81 Cul EDC 10/12f.Google Scholar

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83 Lpro PROB 11/339, f. 84.Google Scholar

84 Hopwood became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1664, having previously held the post of Organist at Exeter Cathedral (1660–4); see Spink, Restoration Cathedral Music, 255; Shaw, Succession of Organists, 109.Google Scholar

85 Randall served at Exeter Cathedral as Vicar Choral and (occasional) deputy organist from 1610 until the Interregnum, c.1643; see Jeans, Susi, ‘Greenwood Randall’, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1st edn, London, 1980), xv, 580. Irishe copied the service into the Windsor partbooks, and Thomas Tudway added it to the Eton College partbooks during his brief tenure as Informator Choristarum (1662–3; see above, page 91, and note 18). However, it is not found in either Cpc 6.1–6 or Och 1220–4, which might suggest that it was not included in the pre-Commonwealth Windsor repertory.Google Scholar

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87 He received payment in the 1647, 1648 and 1649 audits. WRec 62/10, pp. 229, 271, 308.Google Scholar

88 WRec 62/10, p. 463.Google Scholar

89 See, for example, the will and inventory of Captain Edward Palmer, Poor Knight of Windsor (2 November 1675), WRch XIII.B.3, p. 85.Google Scholar

90 WRch VI.B.5.Google Scholar

91 For example, changes in the formation of ‘C’ and ‘f’ can be dated to between 26 February 1673/4 and 27 April 1674; Child's Short Service in A re and Last Service in D were first copied into the Windsor partbooks after this change took place. See Dexter, ‘Provision of Choral Music’, 179–80, 192.Google Scholar