USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston : the Old North Church of Paul Revere fame : historical sketches, Colonial period, 1723-1775 > Part 10
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VOTED that an answer signed by the Church Wardens be sent to said Capt. Cavally desireing a direct Informa- tion how to proceed to Obtain the same and all charges Ariseing on said accounts to be paid out of the Church- Stock.
Nearly a year later it is recorded in a vestry meeting of March 1, 1735, that a letter from Mr. Peter Bayen- ton of Philadelphia stated that "there is in said place an Organ with eight stops or more, suitable for our church at a reasonable rate." The vestry, evidently in earnest, thereupon voted that "the charges of an organ afore- said be raised by subscription." There the matter rested although sufficient money was promised to enable the committee to continue negotiations, this time with a cor-
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respondent from Newport, Rhode Island. A letter ad- dressed to William Price was read in a vestry meeting August 7, 1736, from a Mr. Claggett, who offered an organ for 400 pounds. Considering the price too high the vestry offered "three hundred pounds this currency for said Organ when fixt up in the church and in good order according to the approbation of proper judges." The vestry then empowered William Price and Stephen Deblois, or either of them, to go to Newport and in- spect the Claggett instrument, expenses to be paid out of the subscription money.
This subscription list1 for the organ, headed by Gov- ernor Belcher, amounted to 612 pounds, and included such patriotic citizens as Peter Faneuil; Thomas Graves, the eminent physician of Charlestown, who had been the first senior warden of Christ Church; several subscribers who at various times were officers in Christ Church, in- cluding William Price with the largest individual sub- scription; three women; and others who in one way or another were connected with the installation of the organ, such as William Bant who did the king's arms; John Gibbs, Dr. Cutler's son-in-law, who did the deco- rations; John Indicott, who built the steeple in 1740; Jeremiah Fones who paid for the transportation of the bells in 1744, as well as Thomas Gunter who made the arrangement for their purchase. Most of the subscribers were connected with Christ Church or King's Chapel, while others were just interested patrons.
THE CLAGGETT ORGAN
It was Mr. Price who made the trip to Newport, re- porting on September 15, 1736, that "said Organ is readily worth the money demanded for the same and very suitable for our Church." His carefully itemized
1 See Appendix for list of subscribers.
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P
ORGAN LOFT IN CHRIST CHURCH AFTER THE RESTORATION IN 1912 showing " cherubim," Avery-Bennett clock, and one of the two brass chandeliers, called " branches," given in 1724 by Captain William Maxwell
3 As of Map: hel! farcies and Ralf You king Frund is astory the
Thoundy in fiser For an argues fit
$31.4 thriftis the
320 ----
Willem Pag
RECEIPT OF WILLIAM CLAGGETT 1736
bill of expenses on this Newport trip makes interesting reading.
Messrs Robert Jarvis & Robert Jenkins
Church Wardens of Christ Church ........ Dr. £ 1735/6 March 6, To cash paid for a letter from Mr.
Baynton about the Organ 0. . 12. . 4
June 21 To cash paid Ditto 6 .. 2
July 19 To cash paid Ditto from Mr. Wood 6 .. 2
Sept. 13 To cash paid Sundry Expenses to New Port to see ye Organ 6. . 6 .. 6
To cash paid for Horse Hire 3 . . 0 .. 0
Oct. 28 To cash paid Mr. Robert Jenkins 10 .. 0 .. 0
To cash paid Mr. Shem Drown 6. . 0
I737 April I To projecting and drawing a draft of ye Organ 1 .. 10 .. 8
To directing ye workmen in making it 5. . 0 .. 0
To drawing 6 large Pannels of Cut Work 2 .. 0 .. 0
To Ditto 6 smaller I. . O .. 0
To 2 bushell of Charkole 1/1 2 .. 2
£30 .. 10 .. 10
Boston, April ye 1, 1737 CR
By my subscription to ye Organ £30 .. 0 .. 0 By cash received of Capt. Welch IO. . 0
Errors excepted pr William Price
The bargain was now closed and no time lost in getting ready for the installation of the organ .~ By a vote of the vestry, October 5, 1736, it was resolved "to gett the front gallery prepared after the best manner for the reception of the Organ," and it was specified that the committee should " add what is proper in the Beautify- ing and fixing up said Organ in the church."
It was fortunate that, as usual, the vestry did not fore- see into what multitudinous expenses this was to lead the parish. First, there was the work of carpenters and [ 125]
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painters who had to alter the gallery by removing the pews; second, the organ had no case, which had to be designed and constructed, the pipes gilded and ornaments designed to be carried out on each side, perhaps to give a more imposing front to the instrument which must have been small, as a comparison with the King's Chapel organ of 1713 now at St. John's Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will show; but most essential, an organist and an organ blower.
Later on, we shall see how the problem of organ play- ing had been anticipated by William Price when the building of Christ Church was under discussion.
William Claggett's receipt for the sale of his organ is found in the wardens' receipt book, dated October 29, 1736, fixing the date of installation.
Rec'd of Messers Robert Jarvis and Robert Jenkins, Church Wardens, the sum of Three Hundred and Twenty Pounds in full for an Organ sett up in Christ Church, as Witness my hand.
William Claggett.
The receipt calls for twenty pounds more than the amount bargained for, but perhaps the setting up proved more of a job than either Claggett or the church antici- pated, as happened in later organ transactions.
When the King's Chapel organ was finally installed, not without protest, it was quite useless, as no one in New England was qualified for organ playing and an organist had to be sent for from England. In the interim the versatile William Price filled the place until the ar- rival from London in 1714 of Edward Enstone, who was expected to eke out his salary of £30 yearly as or- ganist by teaching music and dancing. So shocked were some of the strict dissenters that Judge Sewall was moved to dissuade the Governor from attending one of Enstone's "balls." No other organist was available for Christ Church in 1736 except William Price who, even
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before the parish had an organ, had volunteered to play free a year if engaged for five years, a proposition gladly accepted by the wardens and vestry. So the Boston Gazette carried under date of December 6 to 13, 1736, the following bit of news:
We hear a New Organ is Purchased and Erected up in Christ Church, whereof the Rev. Dr. CUTLER is Min- ister and will be Open'd and Play'd upon on Sunday next for the first time and so to continue.
By now the wardens and vestry were beginning to real- ize what they were in for as to expenses. The bills began to pile up- 169 pounds for carpentry, 161 pounds for painting, 30 pounds each for nails, carving and "cutt- work " being the largest amounts. Added to William Claggett's bill of 320 pounds, they made a grand total of 842 pounds, of which only 612 pounds had been sub- scribed. This meant that the deficiency must be made up from the "church stock," i.e., surplus of receipts over expenditures, or a new source of income must be tapped.
In the clerk's carefully itemized Organ Account in 1737, two entries are of more than passing interest : one is the bill for painting by John Gibbs; the other con- cerns the maker and position of the first king's arms set up in the church, which disappeared long since, leaving no trace of its existence.
We think of drab and colorless interiors of 18th cen- tury public buildings, churches especially, as being char- acteristic of the times. But Christ Church in 1727 under John Gibbs' clever brush had already blossomed into color by the painting of the ropes supporting the brass branches or chandeliers, -"prussian blue picked in with vermilion "; the cherubs' heads and "fusthoons" on the panels, which certainly must have had color; and the painting and gilding of the tables of the law which was done at this time. In 1736 the back drop of the organ loft blazed into "bright red," the pipes and dece
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rations carried out on each side shone with gilt, there were four carved capitals by Gabriel Hebert, painted and gilded, and in front of the organ loft hung eight damask curtains made largely from the "altar piece." The word "altar" meant the Communion table, which was covered with a voluminous damask cloth often called a "carpett." This arrangement still exists in Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1724-5, which has retained, not only the ropes of the brass chandeliers, identical with those of Christ Church, but the swathing folds of a damask Communion table cover. In passing we note that Trinity Church has never made the mistake of dulling the beautiful polished brass of the chandeliers with an ugly coating of bronze, as it has been the mis- fortune of Christ Church to suffer. St. Michael's of Marblehead has also an ancient brass chandelier kept in its pristine beauty of mellowed brass.
During the months of preparation for the installation of the organ, Christ Church had a visiting preacher in its pulpit for several Sundays, none other than a mis- sionary of the S. P. G. driven by storms into Boston en route from Georgia -the disillusioned Charles Wesley. Could he have known for how many years his own yet unwritten hymns were to rise in praise and thanksgiving in the church where he was then preaching, what would have been his thoughts? Dr. Cutler was a busy man that year also-for his son John (Harvard, 1732) was to enter the ministry, and friends in the parish had been raising money1 to send him to England for ordination. He left with Wesley and never saw his native land again, settling down in a rural parish in England until his death.
By December the organ was ready for use after tun- ing by Stephen Deblois, and the vestry voted that there should be a public performance on the organ on Sunday,
1 See Appendix.
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December 19, 1736, to raise something towards the deficit. The Boston Gazette carried the notice of this event but no comments, after the performance which netted forty-eight pounds, swelling the total receipts to six hundred and sixty pounds and five shillings. Of what was played on the organ, who was the performer and who were present, we know nothing. Organ music was now successfully launched on its 200-year course in Christ Church as the keys were delivered to William Price, and the first organ blower, John Fraizier, was instructed to attend him.
The last item on the Organ Account, as posted by the clerk in 1737, is a payment of £15 to William Bant for the king's arms, which was painted and gilded by John Gibbs. This definitely settles that it was in the organ loft, probably on the front of the organ case designed by William Price. That it disappeared is not strange, for in the turmoil of the Revolution many such symbols were torn from walls or buildings. In St. Michael's Church, Marblehead, the king's arms were torn from the wall and the bell rung until it cracked. Christ Church being closed for three years at this time, and strongly anti- Tory, must have had some silent partners in such van- dalism.
There had been constantly recurring expenses on the organ. It had been tuned by Stephen Deblois, Thomas Johnston and Peter Pelham, Jr. Then in 1743 it was put into Thomas Johnston's hands for a drastic overhauling as to tone, according to Johnston's bill.
Mr. Robert Jenkins and Mr. John Gold Wardens of Christ Church.
April To my Assistance & Tuning your Organ pr Agree &C £20-
17 To Cutting all the pipes in order to make the Organ half a note sharper or higher 5-
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1743
To making a New Frame for & removing the pipes that stood in the front on their proper place ye wind box. 5-
Boston, Octo' 25 1744
Errors Exceptd pr Thomas Johnston
James Buck spent a week in December, 1749, “ mending ye organ and working on ditto " at 50 shilling per day - including a " small skin to mend Organ Bellows" at 12 shillings and in the February following the wind chest was taken down and repaired and the inside leathered by Messrs. Simpson and Edwards at a cost of £20. In 1750 Thomas Johnston once more had the organ in hand and this time the bass pipes were moved at a cost of £82. Two years later he again "tuned and mended ye Organ." By this time the instrument may not have seemed so "readily worth the money " asked for it by William Claggett in 1736. Then something happened. On April 15, 1752, the vestry
VOTED That Mr. Johnson 1 have Thirty pounds Old Tenour paid him for Taking down the Old Organ and putting it up again pr agreement provided that said Johnson is willing to allow the £30 again out of the cost of a New Organ the church is now about agreeing with him for without taking any further advantage of the Church therein.
On April 21, 1752, Johnston receipted for "Four Pounds Lawful Money 2 on acct of pulling Down and putting up the Old Organ Belonging to Christ Church and so as to be in part paym't for a new Organ said Church is now About agreeing with me for."
The Claggett organ as an entity had now disappeared. This may possibly clarify the statements about its ori- gin, for the Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island
1 Thomas Johnston's name is frequently written without the "t," but his own signature is always Johnston.
" The distinction is always made in the Christ Church Accounts be- tween Old Tenour (depreciated currency) and Lawful Money.
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organ imported from England in 1733, was not tuned or repaired1 for nearly a century (1835), when the organist refused to play on it more than three months longer unless it was repaired. William Claggett, known as an experimenter in many fields, may have had a try at organ building, which would explain the repeated repairs and alterations to which it was subjected; but evidence that he built it himself is lacking.
A "Mr. Halliburton," who repaired the Claggett organ, applied to the vestry May 16, 1738, for "liberty to place & fix up his Organ in the Church Bellfry for his own Safety and Security in Case of Fire and finding no Inconveniency may attend it it is now
VOTED that Mr. Halliburton have Liberty to Sett up his Said Organ in the Church Bellfry during pleasure ; he avoiding always that the Church be not thereby In- cumbered; And also that he have liberty to take it away whenever he please."
No further record appears in regard to this organ, when it was placed there or when removed. This memorandum is placed here as a matter of record.
WILLIAM CLAGGETT
Not much is known about William Claggett as a clock maker and still less as an organ builder. He was born in 1696, probably in Wales, came to Boston as a youth, was there married on October 21, 1714, to Mary Arm- strong; advertised under the name of "William Clag- gett, Jr., Clock Maker near the Town House," in December and January, 1715-16. In the latter year he removed to Newport, Rhode Island, where he was later admitted as a freeman, joined the First Baptist Church and in 1721 published a religious book on a local con- troversy.2 In 1726 he was mentioned as a musical in- .
1 Wm. King Covell - The Organs of Trinity Church, Newport, R. I. * William Claggett. " A Looking Glass for Elder Clarke and Elder Wightman . and the Churches Under their Care. "
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strument maker and in 1738 was printing paper money for the Rhode Island Colony. His experiments in elec- tricity are said to have influenced Benjamin Franklin's researches and in 1747 he was exhibiting an "electrical machine " in Boston.
From material collected by the Clock Club, Mr. Albert R. Partridge, secretary, made the following ré- sumé after its meeting on November 2, 1935 :
Thus to date we have William Claggett identified as a mer- chant, a clock maker, an author, an engraver, a printer, possibly a maker of musical instruments and a dabbler in the science of electricity.
Truly a jack-at-all-trades but certainly a master clock- maker, as the many beautiful examples 1 of his work still extant after two centuries well confirm.
William Claggett died October 18, 1749, his second wife Rebecca, mentioned in his will, surviving him, but none of his business papers nor correspondence has ever come to light.
THE JOHNSTON ORGAN
Soon after Thomas Johnston made such a drastic overhauling of the Claggett organ pipes (1750), it be- comes evident either that the old organ was not consid- ered worth tinkering with or that the parish had become organ conscious by the greater beauty and capacity of the organ imported for Trinity Church in 1744; for on August II, 1752, the vestry record reads as follows :
VOTED That Mr Johnson make for the church called Christ Church a New Organ with the Echo equall
1 One of Claggett's clocks is in the Newport Historical Society's rooms, another on the steeple of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. Others are privately owned. The one bequeathed to Rt. Rev. Samuel G. Babcock, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, was the means of trac- ing the Claggett organ in Christ Church. It has never been listed in any clock book, however, but a close-up of the dial was reproduced in the Boston Evening Transcript of February 29, 1936.
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1
to that of Trinity Church of this Town, and that he be paid for it two hundred Pounds Lawful Money to be done according to the Terms already mentioned & also that Mr. Johnson if he pleases make a Double Diapason in the Trebble.
VOTED that Capt. John Pullen & Giles Tidmarsh the present Wardens sign the Contract or Articles of Agreement for the same in Behalf of said Church.
Two days later, August 13, 1752, it cost the parish five pounds, ten shillings paid to R. Jennings for drawing the articles, a transaction doubtless facilitated by the twenty shillings paid for accompanying "punch."
While the Claggett organ was dismembered, from January 1, 1752, and Johnston was putting it together again, he set up an organ of his own make in the church and on March 30, 1752, the proprietors voted that " Mr. Johnson should have a consideration for his Organ be- ing used for the church for 3 mos. last past as the Vestry thinks proper," Johnston receipting on April 16, 1752, for "£10 Old Tenour or £1, 6 sh. 8 d. Lawfull Money for Use of my Organ now standing in Christ Church."
The phrase "now standing in Christ Church " obvi- ously refers to the temporary organ, but has misled some writers to give the date of the second organ as 1752. As we see by the records, however, the vote for the organ with an echo equal to Trinity's was not passed until August of that year.
Collections for the organ fund came in slowly and the committee had to go after some of the money, a proceeding familiar to twentieth century collectors. A July record shows an expenditure of £1, 10 sh. " paid for hire of a chaise at Charlestown to go to Mr. Temple and Mr. Isaac Royall at Mistake [Mystic] for sub- scription to Organ."
Money evidently continued to be scarce and John- iton was paid in driblets, sometimes six and eight pounds
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at a time, over a period of seven years, until late in 1759 the Wardens' Receipt Book shows the following entry :
Dec. 28th. 1759. Received of John Pigeon (Church War- den) seventeen pounds, eleven shillings and three pence, Lawfull Money in full for an organ and all debts and de- mands on Christ's Church or the Wardens and Vestry of the same.
Thomas Johnston.
Nevertheless, five years later on September 7, 1764, the wardens and vestry received a letter from him re- questing "some allowance in consideration of the hard bargain he had in makeing the organ," whereupon they
VOTED That a present of Ten pounds Law money be given to Mr. Thomas Johnson in Consideration of Extraory Trouble and Expence in makeing the Organ.
VOTED That Mr. Thomas Johnson be paid three pounds L. Mº. for half the cost of an additional Stop he has put into the organ.
It seems hardly probable that in 1764 Johnston would have been asking for additional payment for an organ completed ten years earlier. No correspondence is in the archives of the church, so all inferences have to be made from the book entries or bills. As for the organ he made while the Claggett organ was being rebuilt, there is no record of further payment for its use in the church and we may infer that the rebuilt Claggett organ served until such time as the new organ was ready. Curiously enough, in the wardens' accounts for Christ Church in 1771, in a summary of outstanding debts due to various individuals, there is one item of "£97. 10 sh. due Est. of Thomas Johnson." This was four years after his death and presents an unsolved question in view of pre- vious records.
The center of the present organ case, generally con- ceded by experts to be with slight alterations and en- largements the Johnston case, now demands our attention.
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F inter nert
hora Proche Borton December 28.1759. Received of John Digan (funschwächen) Seventeen poruch Elevenstieg, 4 Hores pence Surface money inface faireun Or gare & use be fits due, & as invent malhaut- Church in the Wailers & Westry of the same £17.11.3 Thomas Johnston C
RECEIPT OF THOMAS JOHNSTON 1759
THOMAS JOHNSTON 1708-1767 Builder of the Christ Church Organ, 1759 From a Portrait attributed to Robert Feke Courtesy of Rose Standish Nichols Copyrighted 1945. All rights reserved
We know that "John Vintenon & John Indicott, In Com- pany" made the case for the Claggett organ. Indicott was the builder of the second spire of Christ Church and had done much of the work on the new King's Chapel (1749). The expenses for the Claggett organ had been all listed on an Organ Account, each item care- fully accounted for; but not so for the Johnston organ, and a scanning of each bill and entry for this period becomes necessary to bring out details.
In that curious little record book begun by F. Beteilhe, the parish clerk in 1733, where the book was presented to creditors to make out their own bills, perhaps when an itemized account was not desired, there are two records which may throw some light on the subject. The first reads,
Boston, 5th May 1758. Received of Mr. John Baker, six pounds fifteen shillings, Lawfull money in part of an Acct. for work done at Christ Church.
Thomas Stevens John Longley
and the second,
Boston Augt 31st. 1758. Received of Mr. John Baker Thirty Four Pounds ten shillings 1 3/6 Lawfull Money In full for the Organ Case and Stuff and Sundry Jobbs.
Thomas Stevens John Longley
34-10-1 3/6
This would seem to imply that Stevens and Longley built the case and had to wait for their money as well as Johnston, or that the case was not ready until 1758 and that Johnston had still a year's work on the organ before the final payment in 1759. As Johnston was a decorator of fine cabinet work, he may well have spent the good part of a year in embellishing the case.
Writing in the musical magazine, Diapason, S. Har- rison Lovewell, in an article on the Christ Church organ of today, states that the present case is probably the original Johnston case with slight changes and is a work
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of great architectural beauty. He adds that possibly a few of the pipes are Johnston's, but this is merely con- jecture. There are unsubstantiated references to the present location of some of the pipes, but none have been verified.
In 1817 the Johnston organ was still in use in Christ Church. Yet three years later the parish was bargaining for another organ to replace it, which was done in 1821, when the Goodrich organ took its place in the musical sequence of the Christ Church records.
The only record of a recital played upon the John- ston organ is in 1808. It is an interesting addition to the slight knowledge that we have of the uses made of the organ for the public. Here is the program :
Boston July 8, 1808.
Order of Performance.
I. VOLUNTARY
2. ANTHEM, Now is Christ risen, &c
3. CHANT Cantate Domino
4. 150th PSALM
5. 23ª PSALM
6. ODE ON MUSICK
7. VOLUNTARY, and Contribution to be applied to the estab- lishment of a Singing School. Organist. &c
8. EVENING HYMN
). VOLUNTARY
Ode to Music
Bass Solo. Down steers the Bass with grave majestick air, Treble Solo. And up the Treble mounts with shrill career, Duo. Treb. & Bass. With softer sounds in mild melodious lays, Tenor Solo. Warbling between the Tenor gently plays, Alto Solo. But if the Aspiring Alto joins its force, See like the lark it wings its tow'ring course, From the bold height it hails the echoing Bass Bass Solo. Trio. Which swells to meet And mix in close embrace. The different systems all the parts divide, i
By Musick's chords their distant notes are tied, And sympathetick strains, enchanting wind, Their restless race till all the parts are join'd.
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Chorus.
Then roll the raptures through the air around In the full magic melody of sound.
Boston, July 8, 1808
Sir
The above is to be performed at Christ Church on Sunday next, in the afternoon; agreeable to a vote of the Proprietors at Easter meeting; you are hereby notified and requested to attend with your friends, and to lend your aid to a measure, calculated to promote the interests of our Church.
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