Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/477

 ii s. iv. DEC. 9, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Thomas Tovey her executor until her daughter Frances Purcell should reach the age of eighteen, when she was to be exe- cutrix. The will stated that, according to her husband's desire, she had given her " deare son [Edward] a good education, and she alsoe did give him all the Bookes of musick in Generall, the organ, the double spinett, the single spinett, a silver tankard, a silver watch, two pairs of gold buttons, a hair ring, a mourning ring of Dr. Busby's, a Larum clock, Mr. Edward Purcell's picture [This Edward was the great Henry Purcell's brother, b. 1653, d. 20 June, 1717, buried Wytham, where his deeds are recorded at length on a stone. This Wytham spelled wrongly as " Wightham " by Rimbault is in N. Berkshire and near Oxford.]", handsome furniture for a room,"

and he was to be " maintained until pro- vided for." Mrs. Purcell was buried in Westminster Abbey, 14 Feb., 1706 : " The widow of Mr. Henry Purcell in the middle of the north aisle, near his monument" (Chester's ' Registers,' p. 257).

Daniel Purcell (Henry's brother) died November, 1717, and immediately after his death there appeared in The Daily Courant, 12 Dec., 1717, the following :

" Whereas Edward Purcell, only son of the famous Mr. Henry Purcell, stands candidate for the organist's place of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in the room of his uncle Mr. Daniel Purcell, deceased, This is to give notice, that the place is to be decided by a Generall Poll of House- keepers of the said Parish,whom he humbly hopes, notwithstanding the false and malicious reports of his being a Papist, will be assistant to him in obtaining the said place. N.B. The Election will begin upon Tuesday the 17th, at nine in the morning, and continue till Friday following, to four in the afternoon."

There was no final decision as to who was to fill the place until 17 Feb., 1718, when a vestry meeting was held, and the question who was to be organist was settled. The candidates were Short, Isham, Young, Green, " Pursill," Haydon, Harris, and Hart. Green was unanimously elected, but in April of the same year he resigned, when there was another election, and Edward tried again, but was unsuccessful, Isham being appointed.

Although it is not quite certain, it is yet highly probable that Edward married in

1710, when he was 21 years old. We know that his wife's name was Anne, and the Registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, contain the entry of a baptism : "4 May,

1711, Frances, daughter of Edward and Anne Purcell, born on 19th April." The Registers of St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields for 1716 contain the baptismal entry, 11 Dec., " Henry, son of Edward and Anne Purcell, born 26 Nov."

On 8 July, 1726, Edward Purcell was made organist of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and held the post from that date until his death. In 1738 he was enrolled among the first list of members and founders of the Society of Musicians (now known as the Royal Society of Musicians). The date of his death which occurred on 1 July, 1740, but which in the ' D.N.B.' is left a matter of conjecture was first made clear in a valuable article, signed "Dotted Crotchet," which appeared in The Musical Times, 1 Aug., 1905, p. 517. The death is recorded in two London newspapers The Daily Gazetteer and The Daily Post, 2 July, 1740" Yester- day dy'd suddenly Mr. Pursell, Organist of St. Margaret's Westminster, a Place of 50Z. per ann." His wife did not long survive him. The burial registers of St. Margaret's record (19 Aug., 1740) the inter- ment of Anne Purcell.

Besides the children of Edward and Anne Purcell referred to above there was another child, Edward Henry, whose registered entry of birth is not at present known, but who is believed to have been a minor at the date of his father's death (1740). The vestry minutes of St. Mar- garet's under date 30 Oct., 1746, contain the following :

" Mr. Edward Henry Purcell, son and adminis- trator of Mr. Edward Purcell, late organist of the Parish Church, applied to the vestry, and re- quested payment of the salary of his said late father as organist at the time of his death."

Chamberlaine's ' Magnae Britanniae No- itia,' 1737 (p. 219), gives the names of the hildren of the Chapel Royal, and we find Edward Henry Purcell in the list. Among bhe King's music, which for years lay in an underground room at Buckingham Palace, and which, upon the accession of King- George V., was moved, by His Majesty's permission, to the B.M., there is a volume n Henry Purcell's autograph. It had also Delonged to Edward Purcell, and contains an entry in his hand : " Score booke Anthems and Welcome Songs, and other Songs, all by my father." At the other end of the book is an autograph inscription : ' Ed. H. Purcell, grandson to the author of this book."

On 11 Aug., 1753, the vestry of St. John's, Hackney, " resolved and agreed that y e place of organist of the Parish be and is declared vacant : agreed that the sallary of y e organist of the Parish be settled." They agreed that he should have 201. a year, and }hey further decided to advertise in The Daily Advertiser that the post was vacant. On 22 Sept., 1753, six candidates appeared