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 12
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Nine years later when the new church at the North End was nearing completion the vestry of King's Chapel on November 23, 1723,
VOTED that Mr Edwd Enston deliver the Key of the Organs to Messrs Price & Gifford that they may practice on the Organ in order to qualify one of them to be Or- ganist.
No doubt Mr. Price availed himself of the privilege and we know that Nathaniel Gifford did, as he succeeded Edward Enston as organist of King's Chapel only a few months later on April 6, 1724.
A second Episcopal church in Boston without an organ was unthinkable and William Price, who was to be so intimately associated with Christ Church, had ample op- portunity to prepare himself through the next nine years to become a qualified organist. He may even have had in- struction from Charles Theodore Parchebel, of Boston, who was called to be organist of Trinity Church, New- port, Rhode Island, when the organ presented by Dean Berkeley was set up in that church in 1733. All this prob- able preparation makes William Price more than "an organist of sorts," as he is frequently referred to.
In any event, he played the Claggett organ in Christ Church from 1736 to 1743, and holds the title of first American to play a church organ in New England.
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On October 27, 1743, he receipted for £23 O. T. “in part of my Sallery as Organist of Christ Church " and on March 31, 1744, for "£20 in full to this day of all demands from Christ Church," evidently arrears of pay- ment as his successor in the organ loft had begun at Easter, 1743.
STEPHEN DEBLOIS 1743-1747
The second organist of Christ Church was Stephen Deblois, son of a Huguenot refugee who had fled from France after the Revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes and settled in Oxford, England. There his son Stephen was born in 1699, the family removing to America on the same ship which brought William Burnet to New York as governor in 1720. In his retinue came also Ann Furley, who became the wife of Stephen De- blois. Two sons were born of this marriage: the elder, Gilbert, was named for William Burnet's father, the Bishop of Salisbury, who stood godfather; and Lewis, born in 1727 in New York. Thoroughly Anglicized, the family name was written " Deblois," not " de Blois," and the sons' baptismal names, Stephen, not Etienne, and Lewis, not Louis.
In 1728 William Burnet arrived in Boston as royal governor and in his train came Stephen Deblois and his infant family. Many Huguenot refugees found a church home in Boston in the French Protestant Church in School Street, but a goodly number affiliated themselves with the Episcopal Church. Deblois naturally enough became a member of the King's Chapel parish, where his friend, the royal governor, worshipped. In the book- ish and musical atmosphere of their English home and as intimates in the governor's circle, where good music was a part of the household's daily life, Stephen Deblois had ample opportunity to enable him to acquire pro-
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ficiency sufficient to become organist of King's Chapel in 1733. The governor's sudden and tragic death deprived the Deblois family of much social advantage, but they remained for many years loyal and public-spirited citi- zens of Boston until, ardent Loyalists, they were forced to flee on the evacuation of Boston.
When Christ Church was deciding on an organ in 1736 the vestry had requested Stephen Deblois and William Price, or either of them, to pass judgment on the Clag- gett organ in Newport, Rhode Island. William Price made the inspection, but it was Stephen Deblois who tuned the organ for the first public recital given Decem- ber 19, 1736. In 1743 he succeeded William Price as organist in Christ Church, which position he held until Easter, 1747, when he returned as organist to King's Chapel.
The Deblois family history, like that of so many of the French Huguenots, is full of interesting incidents and liberalities. When the small wooden chapel which had served His Majesty's representatives since 1689 was torn down and replaced by the present stone building in 1749, Deblois was a liberal donor, as well as to the fund for a new organ in 1756.
. Bostonians of an older generation will long remem- ber the row of stately English elms which stood in front of the Granary Burying Ground. Few know they were planted in 1770 by Gilbert Deblois, who bought the young saplings from James Smith, a rich distiller, who had secured them in England, Deblois promising to name a son for Smith in exchange. But because the trees were cared for by a patriotic coachman, Adino Paddock, and soon after their planting the Deblois family was pro- scribed and banished, they became known as the Paddock Elms. In 1874, when Tremont Street was widened, T. W. Parsons, the poet, in a sonnet, "Too Late," be- wailed their destruction, complaining in a letter to a
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friend that they had been "guillotined in the cause of horse cars."
Ann Furley Deblois died in 1762, and when Stephen Deblois joined her in 1778, both sons, Gilbert and Lewis were proscribed and banished, and their estates forfeited, for they had sailed away with the troops in March, 1776, at the evacuation of Boston.
LEWIS DEBLOIS 1747-1748 1760-1761
Lewis, younger son of Stephen Deblois, was born in New York, September 9, 1727. Thus he was not quite twenty years of age when he succeeded his father as organist of Christ Church.
He was later a successful merchant, doing a large im- porting business in hardware and other foreign goods, including musical instruments, which he sold at his shop in Dock Square at the Sign of the Golden Eagle. In 1754, in partnership with his brother, Gilbert, the two built and operated Concert Hall, a musical rendezvous for nearly a century. Their shop, The Crown and Comb, was on the ground floor, the Concert Hall above was the music hall of its day; many public functions, besides concerts, took place there. It is especially interesting to Episcopalians, as the diocesan convention of 1796, which for the second time elected Edward Bass bishop of Massachusetts, was held there; and such public ob- servances as memorial services on the death of Wash- ington, like that held by St. John's Lodge in 1800. Not until Hanover Street was widened in 1869 was the build- ing which stood on the south corner of Queen (now Court) and Hanover Streets, demolished.
Frequent trips to England kept him in touch with novelties which he often wished to unload when contem-
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plating another trip abroad. Thus in June, 1763, he advertised in the Boston Gazette "for sale a curious Ton'd double key'd new harpsicord just imported in Capt. Millard from London. Is esteem'd the Master Piece of the famous Falconer; " and "an organ for church use made by Thomas Johnston of Boston used in Concert Hall," the final disposition of which we would like to know more about.
Lewis Deblois entered the inner circle of Christ Church life when Dr. Cutler united him in marriage on September 4, 1748, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Jenkins, a prominent North End merchant, for some forty years a moving spirit in Christ Church, of which he was junior and senior warden in 1736 and 1737. Elizabeth died in 1767, and Lewis married Elizabeth Debuke in 1770.
He remained as organist of Christ Church one year, ending at Easter, 1748. Twelve years later he was re- called by a vote of the vestry, when the wardens were desired to " wait on Mr. Deblois and agree with him to play on the Organ on the best terms they can not exceed- ing £26-13-1I Law money pr Annum." This time he was evidently to play on the Johnston organ, which Thomas Dipper, organist of King's Chapel, had tuned in October, 1759, for four pounds four shillings lawful money. This seems to fix the date of the use of the John- ston organ which was to serve Christ Church some seventy years. It was natural that Deblois, who had pre- sided over the smaller Claggett organ, should have had an opportunity to try out Johnston's masterpiece, over which he had labored so long. Deblois resigned at the end of the church year, Easter, 1761.
When the war clouds gathered and Boston was block- aded, a subscription for the sufferers by the siege was raised, to which both Gilbert and Lewis Deblois sub- scribed; but when the British sailed away from Boston
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in March, 1776, bound for Halifax, the Deblois brothers, ardent Loyalists, were among the refugees! After the Revolution, when, under James Freeman, King's Chapel was turned into a Unitarian church (the first in the United States), Gilbert Deblois for himself and his brother, Lewis, who was in England, protested with others the installation of Freeman as an Episcopal min- ister. Lewis Deblois never returned to Boston, but died in England in 1799 and was buried there.
TIMOTHY BUCK 1748-1749/50
On Easter Monday, March 26, 1749, the vestry passed the following vote :
That the Church Wardens and Vestrymen agree with Mr. Timothy Buck the present Organist about what he is to have for the Time past & agree with him for a certain Time to come how much he shall have pr year.
Evidently a long term contract such as that of William Price seemed desirable to the parish, for April 6, 1749, there was a further vote :
That Mr. Timothy Buck have fifty-five pounds Salery pr Year Ingagein himself To play on ye Organ For 4 Years To Come at the same Rate pr Year old Tenor.
His service, however, was of short duration, for on March 6, 1749/50, when the first year was up, the pro- prietors' book shows the following entry:
Whereas Mr. Buck has given Offence to ye Church by his Obstinate and irreverent behaviour in ye house of God & suffering others so to Doo likewise his not performing to ye Sattisfaction of ye Church as an Organist
Therefore it is Voted that the Church has no further use for him as an Organist he being not worthy of that Station.
A month later Mr. Thomas Johnston re-enters the Christ Church picture in the person of his son, William.
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WILLIAM JOHNSTON 1750-1753
The proprietors of Christ Church now turned to Thomas Johnston, who was soon to build a new organ for them, and on April 6, 1750,
VOTED That Willm Johnson son to Mr. Thos Johnson be Organist of Christ Church and to have seven pounds six shillings eight pence per Annum Lawful Money.
(This amount was equivalent to the £15 old tenor paid to Timothy Buck. )
In 1751 the salary was raised to eight pounds. Wil- liam Johnston continued as organist until July 17, 1753, when £15 old tenor (equivalent to 40 shillings (£2) law- ful money) was paid for a quarter's salary as organist. Only twice while playing the Christ Church organ does William himself receipt for his salary, the usual entry being signed by Thomas Johnston, “£15.O.T. for One Quarter's Salary for my son's playing the Organ at Christ Church that is two pounds lawful money." After William became of age, in 1753, he ceased playing the Christ Church organ.
Miss Williams, in her genealogy of the Johnston fam- ily, describes William as a painter of some repute and an organist, a personal friend of John Singleton Copley, from whom he at one time ordered a picture of his sister, Sarah (Mrs. Hobby), with carte blanche instruc- tions-" Whatever your price is shall be remitted to you in specie or anything you may fancy from the Island." William, who was twice married, at that time was liv- ing in Barbados and died there at Bridgetown before October, 1772. His signature, like his father's, is al- ways Johnston, yet every entry by the clerk in Christ Church records is written "Johnson."
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WILLIAM SHEFFORD 1753-1754
After William Johnston left his post of organist (for what reason is not stated), the wardens, casting about for an organist, decided on William Shefford, who began on October 21, 1753. The record shows he was engaged at a salary of "£60 O.T. per annum, the same as Mr. Johnson the last organist had."
The first payment made to him on January 13, 1754, was for "£1.10-£14-II-0."
An interesting record concerning him is that of May 2, 1754, when William Graves was paid twenty-seven pounds, nine shillings and ten pence "for a suit of Cloths &c for Wm Shefford, Organist." Ten days later he re- ceived four pounds, ten shillings for " playing on Organs, two Sundays."
He was succeeded by John Cutler, a noted musician.
JOHN CUTLER 1754-1759
When William Shefford left his post as organist of Christ Church in 1754 wearing, we hope, the new suit of clothes provided by the parish, he was succeeded by what has turned out to be a man of mystery.
His name, John Cutler, was a not unfamiliar one in 18th century Boston. Timothy Cutler's father was Ma- jor John Cutler, and Timothy's oldest son was named John, and at King's Chapel, there is a record of
1766. March. To Cash paid John Cutler for Stove for ye Organ loft 1.8-
Dr. Foote states in his Annals of King's Chapel that a Dr. John Cutler was "among the influential members of the Parish " in the early 18th century. According to fam- ily records, Dr. Cutler, being childless, adopted first, a
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son of his brother Peter, named John, and on the latter's death, the son of another brother, David, also named John. This opens the possibility of the Trinity organist, born in 1723, and the organist of Christ Church being the same person.
As the former, still according to family tradition, was a musician and served as organist of Trinity Church from 1764 to 1780, and as Christ Church had an organist named John Cutler in 1755, the natural inference is the Trinity organist and the Christ Church organist are one and the same man. Church organists were few in Boston at this time, as only the three Episcopal churches con- tained organs, but the historian cannot afford to infer anything without documentary evidence.
The John Cutler who came to Christ Church fortu- nately left a sample of his handwriting in the receipt for seven months' service as organist. The wardens' receipt book contains a receipt signed May 26th, 1755, by John Cutler for "Four Pounds Thirteen Shillings & four Pence Lawfull money in full for Seven Months Sallery for Playing on ye Organ at Christ Church." A further payment of £35 was made June 30, 1755, but the length of service is not stated. Although there are payments to an organ blower at intervals up to that date, there is no record of payment to an organist until on Easter Monday, 1756, the proprietors voted "to Agree with the Organist on the best Terms as not Settled Before," but still with no mention of the organist's name. The reference to Trinity Church records shows that on Easter Monday, 1755, John Cutler was voted £20 for filling "a vacancy of an Organist" several times.
Therefore, if it were possible to compare the hand- writing of the Christ Church organist and that of the Trinity Church organist, it could be determined whether they were written by the same hand. On investigation I have been informed that Trinity Church has no vouchers
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or receipts of the 18th century, making it impossible to compare handwriting.
The Trinity Church organist, according to family tradition, at the age of 23 built a pianoforte, one of three which he made in his lifetime. His daughter, Anne, married the Rev. Samuel Parker, rector of Trinity Church, in November, 1776, and his biography has been published by the Masonic fraternity, as he was grand master of the grand lodge of Massachusetts. As grand master he signed the charter of Harmonic Lodge of Hingham, Massachusetts.
In the hope that the signature on this charter might correspond with the signature in the Christ Church records, I was able to have the signatures compared by a Masonic authority, who stated that there is no possibility of the signature on the charter being by the same hand as the photostat copy of the Christ Church organist. As John Cutler was an old man when he signed this charter, there is always the possibility that a deterioration of handwriting might exist, but at present John Cutler, the organist of Christ Church, remains a mystery. Who was he?
JAMES BARRICK 1761-1771
In 1760 Lewis Deblois was recalled to Christ Church as organist as has been noted under his name. He served for one year and then the vestry began to cast about for another organist. This time they turned to England, as an occasion now presented itself for personal investiga- tion.
Dark clouds had been gathering on the political hori- zon after the accession of George III; and the voice of Patrick Henry, of Virginia, carried over the colonies in such phrases as "taxation without representation," the "rights of free men," was to find an echo in Christ
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Church on an April evening in 1775. At home, calamity had fallen upon Christ Church when in 1756 Dr. Cutler was stricken with a palsy, which incapacitated him for public service for the nine remaining years of his life.
After three years of assistance in the pulpit by neigh- boring rectors and a lay reader, James Greaton, the parish voted to send the latter to England for ordina- tion, that he might become curate for Dr. Cutler. Young Greaton took with him the following letter of instruc- tions when he departed for England in October, 1759.
October 26, 1759. In consequence of a Vote of the Wardens & Vestry at Mr Ballards Yesterday the Warden wrote the follow- ing letter Viz.
Mr James Greaton
Boston Octº 26th 1759.
Sr In pursuance of a Vote of the Vestry of Christ Church dated 25th Inst impowering us to give you written instructions (as you are now intending for London) that you would en- deavour when please God you arrive there to find a person that understands to play well on an Organ that is a Tradesman, a Barber would be most agreeable, one that has the Character of an Honest industrious man, that will be willing to come to Bos- ton on the following Conditions to have fifteen or not exceeding Twenty pounds Sterling p annum to play on the organ in said Church at the usual times, to have his passage paid, and to have the encouragement of the Congregations improveing him as they have occasion in his Occupation, which power we accordingly invest you with & hope you will endeavour to serve the Church herein.
We wish you success & are Sr yr most Humble Servt J. Pigeon Wardens of Thos Ives Christ Church
P. S. if you can, dont let your agreement be for more than a Years Trial, but by no means exceed Three Years. JP TI
Mr. Greaton evidently found no such person desirous of making the dangerous and uncomfortable voyage with
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scanty prospects ahead and the wardens had to look nearer home.
James Barrick, a member of the vestry, was chosen and in 1761 began a long service of ten years as organist. He was evidently a man of strong personality, serving the parish well in several capacities. In 1764 he bought the pew formerly owned by Dr. Thomas Graves, the first senior warden of the church, and was one of the auditors of the wardens' accounts, a service repeated at subsequent intervals. In 1767 he was a co-signer with wardens, vestry and three other influential parishioners of a letter to the S. P. G., showing the status of the financial affairs of the church to be much depressed after Dr. Cutler's nine years' illness and the double charge of , a curate. He signed the commendatory letter of Rev. Mather Byles, Jr., to the Venerable Society, and con- tributed to the expenses of sending him to England for ordination as successor to Rev. Dr. Cutler.
In 1771 the finances of the parish were causing grave concern, as a report submitted at an adjourned Easter Monday meeting shows indebtedness of over 175 pounds to Barrick. This was settled by a payment of £186:5 sh. in full in January, 1772, after which date his name no longer appears in the church records.
James Barrick was obviously an ornament to his pro- fession as well as to the church which he had served so well.
JOHN NEWMAN 1771-1775
The last organist of Christ Church before the Revo- lution was John Newman, son of Thomas Newman, a prosperous Boston merchant, native of Norwich, Eng= land. Newman succeeded to the post of organist vacated by James Barrick on Easter Monday, 1771, almost without ceremony and possibly without salary, for the
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vote of the proprietors on Easter Monday, 1772, was simply that " Mr. Newman have the thanks of the church for performing as organist the year past." On the fol- lowing Easter Monday, 1773, the sum of two pounds, sixteen shillings was voted to " Mr. Newman for his good services." The next year the first name "John" was in- serted in a similar vote of three guineas for his "good services."
By the next Easter Monday, April 17, 1775, organs and organists were far from the minds of either vestry or proprietors. Boston was in a turmoil which was re- flected in the church transactions, for Dr. Byles, the Tory rector, was clamoring for his long overdue salary and dickering with the vestry of Queen's Chapel in Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, for a more lucrative post, while John Newman's younger brother, Robert, the sex- ton, in secret parley with Paul Revere and his group of patriots, was priming two lanterns for a signal to Charles- town the next night, which effectually closed Christ Church until 1778. Presumably on the reopening of the church in 1778 the organ was again in use. What John Newman was doing meanwhile is not known, only that he did return to Christ Church as organist.
It is an interesting coincidence that John Newman was born on December 29, 1736, only ten days after Christ Church opened its doors to a great company who came to hear a concert on the Claggett organ, the second church organ in Boston. As a music-loving boy living only a stone's throw from the church, he must have heard it many times. He was over eighteen years old when Thomas Johnston set up his much finer instrument in Christ Church, the organ he was to play on many years later. Where he got his musical training, we do not know; in fact, very little is known of the Newman family, no genealogy of this branch of numerous immigrants of this name having been compiled.
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From scattered sources a few facts have been gath- ered, collected at long intervals by descendants. From one source we learn that John was named for an uncle, Rev. John Newman; that he married Sarah (Sally) Flagg, August 4, 1757; and that a son, Joseph, was bap- tized by Dr. Cutler September 21, 1773.
Further details about the Newmans will be found in a chapter on Robert Newman.
POST-REVOLUTIONARY ORGANISTS
1783-1824
When Robert Newman slipped out of the east window in Christ Church after displaying the Paul Revere lan- I terns on that fateful April evening in 1775, his duties as sexton, as well as all religious services in Christ Church, came to an abrupt end. In 1778 the Rev. Stephen Chris- topher Lewis, who had been a chaplain in the British Army, took the oath of allegiance and became rector of Christ Church.1
In any event John Newman, who was organist in 1775, came back and was given thanks by a vote of the proprietors on April 21, 1783, "for his past Services as
1 Here might be a good place to mention that in the three years which the records show that Christ Church was closed, a tradition in the parish, seldom put into print, states that the French Protestants occupied the church at some time between 1775 and 1778, and that the parish nearly lost possession of the building. The S. P. G. manuscripts con- firm this.
In 1778 the Rev. Joshua Wingate Weeks, rector of St. Michael's Church, Marblehead, sent to the Society in London an account of "The state of the Episcopal churches in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, etc." Of the churches in Boston he wrote:
" Trinity Church in Boston is still open, the prayers for the King and Royal Family, etc., being omitted.
" The Kings's Chapel is made use of as a meeting-house by a Dissenting congregation.
" The French have received leave from the Congress to make use of Christ Church for the purposes of their worship; but the proprietors of it, having notice of this, persuaded Mr. Parker to preach in it every Sunday in the afternoon, but which means it remains untouched." "In a word," he adds, "our ecclesiastical affairs wear a very gloomy aspect at present in that part of the world."
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an Organist. Likewise that he have the Benefitt of a Collection at some day Appointed by the Wardens for that Purpose." This is the first mention of the use of the organ after Mr. Lewis became rector. Newman continued as organist until December, 1784, when rec- ords show that he was " stricken at the organ and died on December 12th.
The position presumably was filled by Messrs. Rogers and Son, as on Easter Monday, 1786, the proprietors
VOTED: That the Thanks of the Church be given to Messrs Rogers & Son for their past Services, & that the Pew occupied by their Family shall be free from a Tax the Year ensuing & also that a Contribution (on some Day to be appointed by the Warden) be collected for the Benefit of the said Mr Rogers & Son as Organists.
Messrs. Rogers and Son were followed by William Bright in 1788. In this year there is an interesting vote about the use of the organ. On May 14 it was
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