Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/50

 been a prevailing practice, but this is the only instance I have met with of it at an early date.

According to a notice preserved in Mr. George Roberts' "Social History of the People of the Southern Counties of England," this maker was paid by John Hassard, Mayor of Lyme Regis, in 1551, "his year's rent, 10s."

Robartt's instrument seems to have been in the hands of an adept whose services were appreciated, as we learn from the following entry:

"'1552. The Mayor and his brethren grant to John Coke £5 yearly in consideration of the good service that he hath performed in the church of King's Lyme from time to time, in singing and playing at organs, and which the said John Coke was to continue during his life, in the best manner he could, as God had endued him to do.'"

How long Robartt and Coke continued to exercise their harmonious calling is not known; but probably until the