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 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
Lynde Walters
Robert Fennelly Wardens
Ephraim Lock, Esq. Salem Street.
THOMAS JOHNSTON
So much has been written about the Johnston-John- son families, artisans of 18th century Boston, -how many there were, how they spelled their name, whether one man, the Thomas Johnston who built the Christ Church organ, did all the other things he is credited with, -I have confined my garnered facts largely to his work in Christ Church. That three members of one family, father and two sons, should have contributed so much to the æsthetic side of worship in Christ Church, is indeed noteworthy. But the human interest of the story demands that something should be told of the craftsman as well as of his craft.
Thomas Johnston, according to Cornelia Bartow Wil- liams, fourth in line of descent from the organ builder, was born in Boston in 1708. F. W. Coburn, in his well- documented monographs in Art in America, points out that the year of birth is probably deduced from the "Aged 59 years" in 1767 on his tombstone, as Boston vital statistics do not give his birth and he may well have been born elsewhere, possibly in England, for almost nothing is known of his early life. He lived on the west
[137]
-
side of Brattle Square, Boston, opposite the Brattle Square Congregational Church to which he was ad- mitted to membership in 1726. From his shop in the yard behind his house there poured forth during forty years an amazing stream of artistic products, ranging from church organs to beautifully engraved trade cards. Miss Williams lists him, besides "pioneer organ builder," as an "ornamental painter of clocks, furniture, raised or embossed escutcheons, engraver of bookplates, maps, views, music," and a recent discovery makes him a jap- anner as well.
The Worcester Art Museum owns three engravings by Thomas Johnston, a handsome armorial bookplate of William P. Smith, a large map of the Kennebec River region, and a trade card of John Gould, Jun'., repro- duced in the Boston Evening Transcript, July 15, 1939. On another trade card, dated 1732, Johnston adver- tises himself as a japanner. In 1755 the Psalms of David were advertised as "Engraved, Printed & Sold by Thomas Johnston Brattle Street, Boston." A noted book, The Grounds and Rules of Music Explained or an Introduction to the Art of Singing by Note. Fitted to the Meanest Capacity by Thomas Walter M. A. was printed and sold by "Thomas Johnston in Brattle Street, Boston, over against Mr. Cooper's Meeting House," and contains twenty pages of music engraved by him. In 1729, in association with a cartographer William Burgis, a Plan of Boston was advertised as "Engraven by Thomas Johnston."1 Johnston's flight into the realm of portrait painting is limited to a pastel likeness of Dudley Atkins, a distinguished citizen of Newburyport, now in the Massachusetts Historical Society collections.
With all this versatility, little is known of his work as an organ builder. His labors on the Claggett organ in Christ Church and his commission to build an instrument
1 Bostonian Society, Pub. 25 - II, p. 114.
[138]
to replace it, certainly gave him a start in organ building and serves to place him incontestably as one of the most outstanding New England organ builders. Several church organs are known to have come from his hand. One made for St. Peter's Church, Salem, Massachusetts, in 1754, which was later sold to St. Michael's Church, Marble- head, a church noted as being the first to use a chanted psalter, bore his name on a plate when it came into the hands of Hook and Hastings, 19th century organ builders, in 1833. The plate was seen by several interested per- sons but disappeared more than seventy years ago, ac- cording to J. H. Edmands in a letter to William F. Gavet, historian of St. Peter's Church, Salem. It was worded as follows:
Thomas Johnston Fecit Nov. Anglorum 1754.
St. Michael's Parish paid the last hundred dollars due on this organ to St. Peter's Church, Salem, in 1821.
Thomas Johnston was evidently musically inclined, for a record of the Brattle Square Church, of which he was a member, states that in 1739 their committee "applied to our good brethren, Mr. Johnston and Mr. Mason and prevailed with 'em to set together and lead us in the ordinance of singing." And they might have had Thomas Brattle's organ to lead them if they had not rejected it as a gift not compatible with worship in the house of God! How long Johnston continued to "set" with Mr. Mason I do not know. Many years later, in the latter part of 1754, he had been singing in King's Chapel for thirteen weeks at the rate of thirteen pounds and five shillings per quarter. The contract was renewed on April 19, 1756, by a vote that "Mr. Johnston be continued to Sing and be paid Two Shillings and Eight pence pr Week Lawfull Mony Sallary as long as the Minister and Wardens find it necessary." There is no further record of such service in the published Annals of
[139]
King's Chapel, nor is there any record of Johnston's singing in Christ Church. A perusal of his Accomplish- ments as listed by Miss Williams shows that many things were under his clever fingers for attention around this time.
In 1730 Thomas Johnston married Rachel Thwing and, after her death, her cousin, Bathsheba Thwing who remarried after Johnston's death. Two only of Thomas Johnston's children figure in the Christ Church story: William, of whom a brief account may be found under "Organists of Christ Church"; and John, the portrait painter, whose murals remained long to adorn its walls.
In view of the fact that Thomas Johnston is acknowl- edged to be the builder of the first church organ of American make,1 it is regrettable that so little is known of this first organ which for nearly seventy years stood in Christ Church. Some idea of his craftsmanship and skill may be inferred from the repairs he made to the Claggett organ, and what he did to his own beautiful instrument, which as late as 1817 Shubael Bell, senior warden, described as the work of an American artist and an organ of remarkable sweetness of tone.
Descriptions of the Christ Church organ of today, which have from time to time been made, have been based on the premise that it was the Johnston organ the writer was describing. The church records do not bear out these conclusions, as each time an organ has been ' bought, and there have been two after Johnston, it has been specifically stated that the contents of the old organ were of no further use and were turned over in part pay- ment of the price asked. Each time, however, the case has been retained, enlarged to fit the larger contents but
1 It is not absolutely certain that William Claggett built the organ which he installed in Christ Church in 1736. It is definitely known, however, that Thomas Johnston built with his own hands the organ which replaced the Claggett organ in 1759, an organ which has been acknowledged the first organ made by an American.
{ 140 ]
with the central portion still, we judge, as it was left by Thomas Johnston.
In 1820 the parish was bargaining for its third organ, the deal being consummated in 1821, when William M. Goodrich, then the most prominent organ builder of New England, carried away the contents of the Johnston organ and fitted one of his own make into the enlarged case.
Until Thomas Johnston's papers come to light, the story of the first church organ of American make must remain in the fragmentary condition presented by the Christ Church records.
Johnston's busy life drew to a close in 1767. Although in his early years he was a member of the Brattle Square Church, he seems to have gone over to King's Chapel, where he had sung for many years, as he was interred in the adjacent burying ground. The following inscription appears on his tombstone :
Here lies Buried the Body of Mr Thomas Johnston who departed this life May 8, 1767 Aged 59 years
THE GOODRICH ORGAN
In 1823 Christ Church would reach the century mark. Risen from its low estate after two disastrous wars and still in the shadow of the second, the parish must now arrange to celebrate its hundredth birthday. Subscription papers passed around among "well-disposed " persons was the usual method of raising funds to meet an emer- gency, but in 1820 the parish "pitch'd upon " an addi- tional source of revenue by a vote of the proprietors, May 5, 1820.
The Committee appointed to inquire into the state of the Tombs under Christ Church, recommend that out of
[14] ]
monies received from the future sale of Tombs, One Hun- dred Dollars be appointed to pay the Bond due the Episcopal Charitable Society, the sum of Five Hundred Dollars be next appropriated towards rebuilding the Or- gan, and the remainder be applied towards discharging the debt due Mr. Eaton.
In addition they launched a subscription paper which was headed
Boston, May 11, 1820.
We the Subscribers agree to pay to Mr. John Sowden the sums set against our respective names for the purpose of rebuilding the Organ in Christ Church, Boston.
Asa Eaton 100
A Friend 20
Thos. Clark
20
Joseph Head
20
John Sowdon
50
Robert Cain 25
George Harris
50
H. R. Amory 20
D. Sears
50
William Phillips
20
John Wilson
50 James Perkins
20
A Friend J. R.
IO Sam1 Nickels
50
W. Shimmin
25
J. W. Revere 20
550
The vestry confirmed this vote with the additional statement that "the repairs or new building of the in- terior of the organ" was "a work much wanted to be done," but it promised $550 which, with the $500 to be used from the sale of tombs, seemed amply sufficient to put in repair the Johnston organ, now past its sixtieth year of almost continuous use.
A new organ builder had come into prominence in the early part of the 19th century, William M. Goodrich. He had repaired the King's Chapel organ in the latter years of the 18th century and also, in 1808, the Johnston organ in Christ Church. Some years previous Goodrich had built an organ for Bishop Cheverus for the Roman Cath- olic Church in Boston, and had set up an imported organ in St. John's Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was the best authority on church organs at this time, and
[ 142 ]
the committee awaited with confidence his report. It proved to be the doom of the Johnston organ, as the proprietors' record book shows.
The committee appointed to examine into the state of the Organ in Christ's Church for the purpose of having the interior part thereof repaired or rebuilt as may be found necessary.
Report. That they have attended the duty assigned them. That after a minute & careful examination they find it necessary to have the interior part of the organ re- built, that they have agreed with Mr. Wm. Goodrich to rebuild the same for $1200 payable as hereafter stated, and the old interior part of the organ with the exception of the bellows which was on examination found to be in perfect order. Their agreement with Mr. William Good- rich was to pay him $600 Cash on the organ being com- pleted to the satisfaction of the Church and approved of by such gentlemen as might be chosen for that purpose and the further sum of $600 in six months from the period of such completion and acceptance.
The committee further report that the interior part of the organ has been completed, and approved of by gentle- men who have examined and heard the same, that they have delivered to Mr. William Goodrich the interior part of the old organ and paid him in cash $600 given him their joint note for $500 payable the 16 August next as also for $100 payable whenever the said Good- rich shall have gilded the exterior pipes of the Organ which will be in full of their contract with said Goodrich.
The committee further report that they have received from the voluntary contributions of the friends of the Church for that purpose $405 and also the further sum of $200 from the Treasurer of Christ Church in part of the sum of $500 heretofore voted for that purpose out of money to be received by the sale of Tombs under the Church.
To enable the committee therefore to meet their engage- ments with Mr. Goodrich it will be necessary for them to receive the $300 balance of the sum voted for the purpose as before stated which will leave a sum of $295 to be pro- vided for.
The committee however feel a lively sensibility in stat-
[ 143 ]
ing that from the liberality heretofore manifested by the voluntary contributions of the friends of the Church, they shall be able to collect from their future contributions the sum necessary to fulfill their engagements.
Boston, April 28 1821 (Sign'd) Jno. Sowdon Committee
The order for replacement of the Johnston organ which was given to Goodrich, called for an "Arrange- ment of Stops for an Organ for Christ Church, Boston," as follows :
Arrangement of Stops for an Organ for Christ Church Boston -
Great organ Up to F in alt and to G G -
Stop Diapason
Open Diapason
Principal
Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Cornet Treble
Sixquanttra Bass
Trumpet Treble
Trumpet Bass
Cremona To fiddle G-
Swell To fiddle G-
Stop Diapason
Open Diapason
Principal
Hautboy
Violini
Double Slides to Stop Diapason, open Diapason, flute, Principal, Cremona &c act with a Pedal -
The above is a copy of a memorandum given to Wm Goodrich
(Signed ) Saml. P. Taylor
and on February 16, 1821, his receipt :
Mess" John Sowdon
John Wilson To Wm M. Goodrich Dr. George Harris
[144]
To and Organ Complete placed in Christ Church, - warranted good, at the price of Twelve Hundred $1200 .- Dollars & the contents of the old Organ Boston Feby 16. 1821 Received payment (Signed) Wm. Goodrich
The archives of Christ Church contain the following letters from the gentlemen who had been called upon to give their opinion regarding the Goodrich organ, which the bill states was "warranted good," an opinion which is borne out by these letters.
Boston Feby 17th 1821
To the Committee of the North Church 1
Gentlemen
I have heard your Organ with great satisfaction and am happy to say that Mr Wm Goodrich has done you ample justice. You have now one of the Best Organs in Boston. I remain Gentlemen Yours Respectfully G. K. Jackson
To the Gentlemen Committee of the North Church 1 Gentlemen
Being called upon to accompany Doct" Jackson to pass Judgement on your Church Organ made by Mr. Wm Goodrich, I herewith certify that I coincide with Doct" Jackson as to the Musical merits of the Instrument which in our hearing was travers'd through every Stop, and I further observe that I saw the work in its Infancy which appeard to me to be as well executed as any I ever saw in London.
Boston 27 April 1821
Gentn Your Obedt Hum1 Servt Marsdn Naddock
Christ Church was indeed fortunate to have in use 'or over sixty years an organ built by a man of whom
1 Two of the many records which show that Christ Church was nown colloquially as North Church.
{ 145 ]
it was said that " In old-style voicing and tuning instru- ments William Goodrich has scarcely been surpassed. His reeds in particular were smooth and harmonious and mingled well with the diapasons without overtopping them and destroying their character." It is regrettable that something could not have been done with the Good- rich organ which was replaced in 1884 by one built by Hutchings and Plaisted. This latter organ is still in use in Christ Church.
WILLIAM M. GOODRICH
One of the early important organ builders of America was William M. Goodrich, born at Templeton, Massa- chusetts, July 2Ist, 1777, the second son of Ebenezer Gutterig and Beulah, daughter of Elisha Childs. Later in life, William changed the spelling of his name to Good- rich, and added a middle name, Marcellus.
His first knowledge of the organ was gathered when visiting a Mr. Bruce, who had been assisting Dr. Josiah Leavitt of Sterling to construct a small organ of wooden pipes, and on his return to Templeton he made one for himself.
In 1805 he started a church organ, which he finished and put up in 1806 for Bishop Cheverus for the Roman Catholic Church on Federal Street, Boston. From 1806 he continued organ building, repaired the organs in King's Chapel, Christ Church and Trinity Church, Boston, and set up an English organ in St. John's Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In 1809 he travelled about the country exhibiting Maelzel's Panharmonicon, a combination of wind in- struments played by machinery.
He left Boston in 1811, returned in 1812, and went into the firm of Hayts, Babcock & Appleton, nearly op- posite the Old South Church. For several years he con- tinued organ building alone, but in 1815 returned to the
[146]
firm of Hayts, Babcock & Appleton, who failed later in the year.
During the next five years he was occupied in organ building for a firm in which he was partner, but on the dissolution of that firm he continued alone in the old building where he built an organ for Christ Church in 1821. In 1832 he built an organ for the First Parish Church (Unitarian) in Templeton, which was in use for sixty years.
His talented brother, Ebenezer,1 worked with Wil- liam for some twelve years before commencing business with his brother-in-law, Thomas Appleton. It was said of him that "he could build every part of an organ from bellows to swell." These two brothers were not the only geniuses in the Goodrich family. Their sister Sarah has been described as "the most noted miniature painter in Boston." Some of her miniatures are now in the pos- session of the Narragansett Historical Society, Temple- ton, Massachusetts. Another sister, Elizabeth, was less well known as a miniature painter.
Miss Ayars, in her well-documented book,2 quotes the following from A Hundred Years of Music in America:
He was a self-taught and exceedingly ingenious mechanic, a student of general knowledge, a diligent investigator, with a correct musical ear and considerable proficiency in music. He - united these faculties in his devotion to organ building with such success that during the time he continued in business, from 1805 - 1833, [the year of his death ] but three foreign organs were introduced into Boston, while his instruments became known throughout the whole of the United States.
1 The first parlor organ built by Ebenezer Goodrich was inherited by a great-granddaughter, Miss Elinor Whidden of Marblehead, who presented it to the Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massa- chusetts.
' Contributions by the Music Industries of Boston 1640 to 1936. Christine Merrick Ayars
[147]
THE HUTCHINGS AND PLAISTED ORGAN
By the time Christ Church next needed another musi- cal instrument, organ building had passed from the hands of individual organ builders. The tempo of life in the late 19th century had stepped up, and gone were the days of the patient and loving labor of such men as Thomas Johnston and the Goodrich brothers, who had contrib- uted so much to the growing love of church music.
In 1884 Christ Church came into possession of funds for repairs through a legacy. The Goodrich organ had then been in active service sixty-three years, and the committee appointed to look into repairs found them im- practicable; and a second-hand organ, built in 1874 by Hutchings and Plaisted for Trinity Church, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was purchased for $1,200 and the old ma- terial of the Goodrich organ.
This necessitated removing parts of the high pews in he organ loft, as the organ was wider, but it did include ne retention of all of the Johnston case to which were added extra pipes on each side.
The report of the music committee on the repairs of .. 884 by Mr. George W. McConnell, states that the original value of the organ was $3,000. A letter from Mr. George S. Hutchings, when undertaking the work, states that for an additional $400 the firm would " supply new Swell Wind Chest and carry through all the Swell stops, the full compass of the Key Board." Attached to this letter were specifications for the organ construction.
In a recent examination of the organ it was noted by an expert that this work could still be done, and by some modern improvements the organ might be brought into a more satisfactory condition.
That Christ Church had the good fortune to secure for its fourth and present organ such a firm as Hutchings and Plaisted, who built organs for churches all over the country, is exemplified by the following statement by
[148 ]
William B. Goodwin, organ builder: "In the period about 1870 this company [Hutchings & Plaisted] prob- ably did the finest work in America." 1
This forever sets at rest statements that the present organ in Christ Church is the organ built by Thomas Johnston in the 18th century.
Hutchings & Plaisted Organ Specifications
Swell organ Viol di gamba
Stop Diapason (Treble)
(bass)
Open Diapason Oboe ·
Principal
(treble)
(bass)
Bourdon 16 ft.
(treble)
(bass)
Cornet Tremulant
Great Organ
Dulciana
Keraulophan
Melodia (treble)
Stop Diapason (bass)
Open Diapason
Flute 4 ft. Principal Twelfth
Fifteenth
Desquialtra Trumpet
Swell to Gt. Coupler
" Pedal coupler
Pedal
" Great
Cornet in Swell instead of in Great as in specifications.
No Cremona in Great No Violin in Swell
Oboe in Swell which is not called for in specifications.
Keraulophan in Great. (Perhaps this is the stop which is called Cremona in the old specifications. It is a stringy sounding stop.) 1 Christine M. Ayars, op. cit.
[ 149]
b
ORGANISTS
1736-1824
The best of organs would be useless without organists to play them. The story of music in Christ Church, Bos- ton, would be incomplete, and less than justice would be done, if we failed to include in our narrative some ac- count of the early organists of the parish.
For several decades in Colonial New England, organs were to be found only in Episcopal churches. The early organists, therefore, as well as the organ builders, have an honored place in the history of the development of church music in America.
Moreover, being almost without exception laymen who thus enriched the church's worship, they should not be left among those "which have no memorial, who are perished, as though they had never been,"1 but should be gratefully remembered by later generations.
Their biographies, all too brief because of the paucity of information, are interesting in themselves, and we could wish that more might be known about them.
WILLIAM PRICE 1736-1743
The first organist of Christ Church was William Price, a post he filled for over six years under the term! of a unique contract on file in the church archives. I reads as follows :
Whereas I the under named William Price did make a Voluntary Offer to the Church Wardens & Vestry of Christ Church in Boston at a Meetting of the Said Vestry March the 15, 1735/6, that I the Said William Price will
Ecclesiasticus 44: 9.
[ 150 ]
officiate as Organist in Said Church for one year certain with [out ] demanding any Sallry for the Same, The Church Wardens being desirous that I Should give it under my hand, agreeable there unto, I do now promise to the present Church Wardens Messrs John Hooton & Robt Jarvis and allso to the Church Wardens for the time being that at all proper & Usuall Times of Divine Service officiate as Organist in Christ Church in Boston, for one year certain without demanding any Sallry from the Church Wardens for the Same, and at the End of Said year do further promise to Officiate as Organist in Said Church (if Residing in Boston) for and during the Space of four years certain, for consideration of which the Church Wardens of Said Church now and for the time being Shall & will truly pay or cause to be paid unto the Said William Price The Sum of ten pounds p Quarter - Immediately after Each Quarter day current money of New England for Every Quarter of a year that the Said William Price Shall Officiate as Organist in Said Church during the Space of the above mention four years, in Wit- ness where of I have Set my hand this 25 day of march in the year 1736
William Price
Sign in the Presence of us
G. Tenant
Thos Greene.
Mr. Price's organ playing dated back twenty-two years to the year 1714, when the parish of King's Chapel installed the organ bequeathed by Thomas Brattle, Esq., to the Brattle Square Meeting House [Congrega- tionalist] with the proviso that if that society did not accept the gift, the organ was to be offered to the King's Chapel. There was then no other church organ in all New England, and for many years thereafter none in any but Episcopal churches.
No organist nearer than England was available and while awaiting the arrival of one from London, William Price of King's Chapel officiated as organist, for which he was paid on August 20, 1714, seven pounds, ten shillings
[15]]
.
1
ty
a E y
amil ms It
e
" for One Qrs Sallery due at Midsummer 1714," in addi- tion to " seven pounds Ten shillings more for work he has done abt the Organ."
In time for Christmas, 1714, Mr. Edward Enston ar- rived from London and William Price's services as or- ganist were no longer needed. Enston's salary was £30 yearly, the same as that paid to Price, and he was ex- pected to supplement the church payments by giving music and dancing lessons. He had also been instructed to learn how to make repairs on an organ before leaving England.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.