Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 167
Scan 167
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
13 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 141. See the scan on archive.org.
1Diapason 8 ft., and Fifteenth 2 ft. The Principal 4 ft., Sesquialtera III R. (3 rows of pipes) and Dulciana 8 ft. (Ten. G.) may have been added later. The wooden pipes were of oak and the organ had brass pallet springs (under the valves). The organ was built by Smith, Harris and Jordan of England and was 4 ft. 5 in. wide, 2 ft. 7 in. deep and 8 ft. 9 in. high. The case was mahogany.
3According to the description by Charles Shaw, member of the American Antiquarian Society, of the Old Brick edifice of the First Church, Boston, reared in 1712 near the market place, "In this Church was introduced the first organ ever admitted into a Congregational Church in this town."4 He omitted the exact date, unfortunately.
5In 1728 after Dean Berkeley's return to England, he sent an organ to the town here bearing his name. When this church declined the gift it went to Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. This instrument had 13 stops and 498 pipes5 as compared with the small Brattle organ. It was in use for 111 years and was reconstructed then by Henry Erben of New York, the case and 2 stops being retained. The other stops, action and keyboard in a pine case went to Kay Chapel, Newport, and Hook & Hastings built a new organ within the original case.6 This has again been rebuilt.
7The next organ put into a church in New England was in Christ Church, Boston. This organ was purchased for £320 from William Claggett, an expert engraver of Newport, Rhode Island, who came to Boston and set it up. Its gilded pipes must have been striking against the vermilion choir loft wall back of it. Whether Mr. Claggett imported or made it is as yet undertermined. William Price, who carried on the dickerings with Mr. Claggett, was its organist for five years, the first of which was without pay. Thomas Johnston repaired this instrument as early as 1750 and rebuilt it in 1752, being required to retain what parts of it he could. By agreement with the church he was to build a new organ of his own "with an echo equal to that of Trinity Church"7 (an organ imported in 1736)." In 1759 he completed and was paid for his organ which
94 Shaw, Charles. A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, 1817, Boston, printed and published by Oliver Spear, p. 238.
105 Lahee, Henry C. "Organs and Organ Building in New England." New England Magazine, December 1897, p. 489.
116 Ibid p. 490.
127 Williams, Cornelia Bartow. Ancestry of Lawrence Williams—Part II Ancestry of His Mother Cornelia Johnston Descendant of Thomas Johnston of Boston, p. 177.
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