Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/125

Banister Clowes, and Goodrus. He also published in folio 'The History of Man, sucked from the Sap of the most approved Anatomists, 9 books, London, 1578.' Calametius, Tagaltius, and Wecker, three dry and unprofitable writers on surgery, form the basis of his writings. No cases from his own practice are given, and neither domestic history nor interesting examples of style are to be found in his pedantic pages. He lived in Silver Street (Antidotarie), and was buried in the church of St. Olave in that street, since destroyed, with the record of his death, in the great fire. He had a long epitaph in English verse, which bears sufficient resemblance to some poems of Clowes to make it likely that it was written for Banister's tomb by his old friend. In 1633, some time after Banister s death, a collected edition of his surgical works was published, 'The Workes of that Famous Chyrurgian, Mr. John Banester,' in six books.

[Clowes's Works; Munk's Roll of Physicians, i. 104.]  BANISTER, JOHN (1630–1679), musical composer and violinist, was the son of one of the ‘waits’ of the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and that profession he at first followed. His father was his first instructor, and he arrived at such proficiency on the violin that Charles II became interested in him and sent him for further education to France, appointing him on his return to the post of leader of his own band, vacated by the death of Baltzar [q. v.] in 1663. A warrant of that year (Add. MS. 5750) informs us that he was appointed to the band at a salary of 40l. per annum, payable quarterly. About 1666–7 he is said to have been dismissed by the king for an impertinent remark concerning the appointment of French musicians to the royal band. This seems to be referred to in Pepys's Diary, date 20 Feb. 1666–7, although Banister's name occurs in a list of the King's Chapel in 1668 (Egerton MS. 2159). On 30 Dec. 1672 he inaugurated a series of concerts at his own house, which are remarkable as being the first lucrative concerts given in London. One peculiarity of the arrangements was that the audience, on payment of one shilling, were entitled to demand what music they pleased to be performed. These entertainments continued to be given by him, as we learn from advertisements in the ‘London Gazette’ of the period, until within a short time of his death, which took place on 3 Oct. 1679. He was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

His most important composition is the music to the tragedy of ‘Circe’ by Dr. C. Davenant, which was performed at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1676. Manuscript copies of the first act are preserved in the library of the Royal College of Music, and in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. In the same year he wrote music to ‘The Tempest’ in conjunction with Pelham Humphrey. Several songs by Banister, some of them belonging to some classic tragedy of which the name is unknown, and written jointly with Dr. Blow, are in a manuscript in the Christ Church Library, Oxford. In the collections of printed music which date from about this time his name is of frequent occurrence. Besides his vocal compositions, which are not of very great interest or importance, he wrote a great many short pieces for one, two, and three violins, and also for the lute. He was especially skilled in writing upon a ground bass. A work of this kind is preserved in the British Museum (Add. MS. 18940) for two violins on a ground, and several similar compositions are among the manuscripts in the Music School at Oxford. There also many of his other compositions are preserved, one of which (MS. 35) is curious, as it appears to be an exercise in bowing. The name is given variously as Bannister, Banester, and Banster, but most commonly, and no doubt correctly, as Banister. His son, John Banister the younger, was a pupil of his father's, and became, like him, a violinist in the royal band, where he remained under Charles II, James II, William and Mary, and Anne. When the first Italian operas were given in this country at Drury Lane, he played the first violin. He died in 1735.

[Burney's History of Music; Hawkins's History of Music; Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians; MSS. in Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Music School and Christ Church, Oxford, and in the British Museum.] 

BANISTER, JOHN (d. 1692?), naturalist, travelled first in the East Indies and later in Virginia, apparently as a Church of England missionary, as well as with the purpose of investigating the natural history of those regions. His stay in Virginia extended over at least fourteen years, during which time he corresponded with John Ray, Compton (bishop of London), and Martin Lister. To Ray he sent in 1680 a lengthy catalogue of Virginia plants, which is published in the ‘Historia Plantarum’ (ii. 1928), where Ray styles him ‘eruditissimus vir et consummatissimus botanicus.’ In the previous year he had sent a similar catalogue, with drawings, to Compton. He was an entomologist as well as a botanist, and published papers on the insects, mollusks, and plants of Virginia in the ‘Philo- 