Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/271

 morning Gowns, and Linnen ; ' to his sister Cage 50l., and 10l. for mourning ; and to his niece, Elizabeth Blow, 60l., 'to be disposed of as my said daughters shall think fit for at her use, and 6l. for mourning. Blow's wife died in childbed on 29 Oct. 1683, aged 30. By her he had five children: (1) Henry (buried in Westminster Abbey 1 Sept. 1676) ; (2) John, died 2 June 1693, aged 15 (said to have been a child of great talent); (3) Elizabeth, married 30 April 1719 to Captain William Edgeworth, and died 2 Sept. 1719 ; (4) Katharine, died unmarried 19 May 1730; (5) Mary, died unmarried 19 Nov. 1738. Blows portrait was painted by Sir Peter Lely, and is now in the possession of the Rev. Sir F. Gore Ouseley. There is a fine engravrng of him drawn from the life by R White prefixed to the 'Amphion Anglicus;' other engravings are a small oval published by J. Hinton, and another (with Boyce, Ame, Purcell, and Croft) drawn by R. Smirke, published in September 1801. Although he of was a voluminous composer, very little of his music has been published separately. An elegy on Queen Mary, 'The Queen's Epicedium,' was printed, with two odes by Purcell, in 1695, and ode on St. Cecilia's day in 1684, an ode on the death of Purcell in 1696 (words by Dryden), a collection of lessons for the harpsichord in 1698, other similar collections (with several by Purcell) in 1700 and 1705, and 'The Psalms set full for the Organ or Harpsichord' (no date). Three services and ten anthems are printed by Boyce, and many of his smaller compositions are to be found in the contemporary publications of Playford and others. Blow wrote many birthday, New Year, and St. Cecilia odes, upwards of one hundred anthems, and fourteen services, most of which are still extant in the collections of the British Museum, Christ Church, Oxford, Music School, Royal College of Music, and Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. His compositions have for long been most undeservedly neglected. During his lifetime he was overshadowed by Purcell, and in later years the attack which Burney made upon nis music deterred musicians from investigating its merits for themselves. Those who have done so are unanimous in thinking that Burney's strictures reflect more discredit upon his critical acumen than upon Blow's music, which was in many respects far in advance of the age in which he wrote, and displays an extraordinary degree of power and Individuality. By his contemporaries he was chiefly admired for his organ-playing, in which he 'was reckon'd the greatest Master in the World, for playing most gravely and seriously in his voluntaries; and also for his mastery of Canon.' The celebrated 'Gloria' from his 'Jubilate in C major,' which is engraved upon his tombstone at Westminster, is said to have been sung at St. Peter's At Home, where it was introduced by Cardinal Howard, to whom it was given by the sub-dean of the Chapel Royal, Dr. Ralph Battell, and Purcell in his additions to the twelfth edition of Playford's 'Introduction to the Skill of Music' (1694) quotes this composition with the remark that Blow's 'character is sufficiently known by his Works, of which this very Instance is enough to recommend him as one of the Greatest Masters in the World.'

 BLOWER, SAMUEL (d. 1701), nonconformist divine, of Magdalen College, Oxford, was ejected in 1662 from Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He had been previously cast out of his fellowship at Magdalen for very slight nonconformity. In 1662-3 he settled in Northampton, and was the first pastor or founder of the meeting-house on Castle Hill there. According to a local history of the congregation, 'Mr. Blower's ministry must have been fruitful. The church covenant was signed by 164 names. For many years he had laboured in adverse circumstances, kept the people together, and prepared the way for his successors,' Of the adverse circumstances there is still a survival in a huge wall and window shutters of extraordinary thickness, prepared specially 'to protect the place from violent attacks.' Blower resigned the charge in his old age in 1694. He retired to Abingdon in Berkshire, which is supposed to have been his birthplace, and died there in 1701. His only published writing was a funeral sermon for Mrs. Elizabeth Tub on Psalm xviii. 46. 