No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Music Collection of Thomas Baker of Farnham, Surrey
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Abstract
Thomas Baker's music collection is part of the special collections of the Music Library at Western University, Ontario. Thomas Baker (1719/20–94) lived mainly in Farnham, southwest of London, England, in the County of Surrey. His music collection remained largely intact, which is unusual for the library of an eighteenth-century man who lived in a small town in rural England. The collection at Western consists of 90 separate pieces of music, collections of music, and books of music theory, plus six manuscripts; an inventory of the collection illustrates the variety of musical forms that he collected. His purchase of an organ leads us to conclude that he played the organ and possibly other keyboard instruments; about 25% of his collection is for keyboard. However, he was also interested in a variety of other musical forms, either as a performer or as a collector. From the surviving information, we can create a basic portrait of Baker and his music collection, even if we can draw no definite conclusions about how it was used or if he was merely a collector, or also a performer or an organizer of concerts.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 The Royal Musical Association
References
1 The Music Collection of an Eighteenth-Century Gentleman (Tunbridge Wells, 1985), 1.
2 Catalogue of Music in the Thomas Baker Collection, Hampshire Record Office, Winchester. Compiled by Richard Andrewes, with the assistance of Lady Jeans and Neil Petersen (1985).
3 David Hunter, ‘Music’, The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 5, 1695–1830 (Cambridge, 2009), 754.
4 St Andrew's Church, Farnham, Parish Register. 22 March 1719: Thomas, son of Thomas.
5 Nigel Temple, Farnham Buildings & People (London, 1973), 65.
6 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham. Downloaded from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=568768&queryType=1&resultcount=2
7 Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886: their parentage, birthplace and year of birth, with a record of their degrees: being the Matriculation Register of the University, alphabetically arranged, revised and annotated by Joseph Foster (Oxford, [1888]). Cambridge University records were checked using the following site: http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/Documents/acad/intro.html.
8 The records were checked by Suzanne Forster, Archivist, Winchester College.
9 Temple, Farnham Buildings, 65.
10 Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham. Hampshire Record Office [henceforth HRO], Jervoise family of Herriard, series 44M69/E18/2.
11 The Victoria History of the Counties of England. History of Surrey, 2, ed. H.E. Malden (London, 1905), 583.
12 Jean Parratt, Farnham Past (Chichester, 1999), 48.
13 Parratt, Farnham Past, 64.
14 Hunter, Cambridge History of the Book, 5: 753.
15 Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham, HRO, series 44M69/E18/2/2.
16 Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham, HRO, 44M69/E18/2/14.
19 Peter Borsay, ‘Concert Topography and Provincial Towns in Eighteenth-Century England’, Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain, ed. Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (Aldershot, 2004), 21.
17 Temple, Farnham Buildings, 66.
18 Temple, Farnham Buildings, 66.
20 Temple, Farnham Buildings, 66.
21 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham, 1. Downloaded from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=336084&queryType=1&resultcount=2
22 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham, 1.
23 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham, 1.
24 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham, 2.
25 Preston Candover Church Burial Records: Thomas Baker Esq. of Farnham, d. Jan 13th 1794, 74 years.
26 Will of Thomas Baker of Farnham, 5.
27 Preston Candover Church Burial Records: Frances Baker, wife of Thomas, d. Dec 31st 1798, 84 years.
28 Victoria History of the Counties of England. Hampshire, 3, ed. William Page (London, 1908), 375. Downloaded from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid = 42004.
29 Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham, HRO, 44M69/E18/1/72.
34 John Marsh, The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of a Gentleman Composer (1752–1828), ed., intro. and annot. by Brian Robins (Styuvesant, NY, 1998), 264.
30 London Evening Post, 30 November 1776 (no. 8535), p. [1].
31 For example, Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham, HRO, 44M69/E18/2/23 includes a receipt from Mary Forde, confirming that she received £4 on 21 November 1765 for a year's wages.
32 Michael D. Lemonick, The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos (New York, 2009), 17–18.
33 Fanny D'Arblay, Memoirs of Dr. Burney, arranged from his own manuscripts, from family papers, and from personal recollections (London, 1832), 3, p. 101.
35 Accounts of Thomas Baker of Farnham, HRO, 44M69/E18/2/14, 44M69/E18/2/18.
36 Preston Candover Church Burial Records. Thomas Baker Esq. of Farnham, d. Jan 13th 1794, 74 years.
37 Roz Southey, ‘The Role of Gentlemen Amateurs in Subscription Concerts in North-East England during the Eighteenth Century’, Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914, ed. Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman (Aldershot, Hampshire, 2007), 116.
41 McCleave, Mackworth Collection, 216–17.
42 William E. Burns, ‘Falle, Philip (1656–1742)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004); online edition, January 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9126, Accessed 12 July 2011].
38 Gnoll Castle is located in the small town of Neath, approximately 12 km east of Swansea.
39 Sarah McCleave, ‘The Mackworth Collection: A Social and Bibliographical Resource’, Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain, ed. David Wyn Jones (Aldershot, Hampshire, 2000), 213.
40 McCleave, Mackworth Collection, 214–15.
43 R. Alec Harman, A Catalogue of the Printed Music and Books on Music in Durham Cathedral Library (London, 1968), ix.
44 Harman, ‘Durham Cathedral Library’, x.
45 Harman, ‘Durham Cathedral Library’, x.
46 Harman, ‘Durham Cathedral Library’, xii–xiii.
47 Robert Thompson, ‘Goodson, Richard (ii)’, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43317 [Accessed 13 July 2011].
48 John Milsom, ‘The Goodson Bequest’, http://library.chch.ox.ac.uk/music/page.php?page=Goodson+ details [Accessed 13 July 2011].
49 Donald Burrows, ‘Sources for Oxford Handel Performances in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century’, Music & Letters, 61/2 (1980), 178.
50 Bryan White, ‘“A Pretty Knot of Musical Friends”: The Ferrar Brothers and a Stamford Music Club in the 1690s’, Music in the British Provinces, 1690–1914, ed. Rachel Cowgill and Peter Holman (Aldershot, 2007), 13.
51 Virginia Company Archives, The Ferrar Papers, FP 2168 and 2170. http://www.virginiacompanyarchives.amdigital.co.uk/Collections/Manuscript.aspx [Accessed 14 July 2011].
55 Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris’, 113.
52 H. Diack Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris, an Early Eighteenth-Century English Physician and Amateur Musician Extraordinaire’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 133/1 (2008), 93
53 Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris’, 96.
54 Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris’, 96.
56 Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris’, 97.
57 Johnstone, ‘Claver Morris’, 115.
59 Chevill, ‘Music Societies’, 52.
58 Elizabeth Chevill, ‘Clergy, Music Societies and the Development of a Musical Tradition: A Study of Music Societies in Hereford, 1690–1760’, Concert Life in Eighteenth-Century Britain, ed. Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh (Aldershot, 2004), 52.
60 Jennifer Burchell, ‘Musical Societies in Subscription Lists: An Overlooked Resource’, Handbook for Studies in 18 th-Century English Music, 9, ed. Michael Burden and Irena Cholij (Oxford, 1998), 2.
61 Burchell, ‘Musical Societies’, 16.
62 A. Hyatt King, Some British Collectors of Music, c. 1600–1960 (Cambridge, 1963), 4.
63 A.N.L. Munby and Lenore Coral, British Book Sale Catalogues 1676–80: A Union List (London, 1977), 50.
64 Andrewes, Catalogue of the Thomas Baker Collection, [8].
65 H. Diack Johnstone, ‘Bennett, John.’ Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02703 [Accessed 3 February 2011].
66 Donald Burrows, ‘Thomas Baker's Word-book for Samson’, American Handel Society Newsletter, 19/1 (Dec. 2004), 6.
67 The Music Collection of an Eighteenth-Century Gentleman, 1.