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William Knighton, a west gallery musician, and parish church music in 1788

17/7/2013

 
In 1788 the churchwardens of  St Andrew's in Bere Ferrers, Devon, where Knighton was born, reimbursed farmer James Toll for violincello strings. They also paid for strings for a bass viol and violin, and reeds for a hautboy. I noted these entries because James was either Knighton's stepfather or his stepfather's father.  I didn't know about west gallery music. 

West gallery music evolved from efforts to improve psalm singing in parish churches around the end of the seventeenth century. The musicians kept part singers in pitch, and members of the 'quire' clustered round the instrument that played their part as in these illustrations. Although musicians were members of the congregation who made their living by other occupations they often not only played but wrote music. Some of their compositions would not have been out of place in a cathedral or college church. Others were foot-tapping singalongs. Here are The Marsh Warblers with Hail Smiling Morn.

The term 'west gallery music' comes from the galleries that parish churches built at the west end of the nave to accommodate the quire and its musicians. The gallery at St Andrew's no longer exists; the one below is from St Thomas's at Foxley in Norfolk. 
Picture
Picture credit: Evelyn Simak [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
There were two James Tolls, father and son. Knighton's mother, Dorothy, was a farmer, widow, and mother of two young children. Dorothy and James jn married in 1782 and had four children. James treated Dorothy's children as his own. I hope it was James jn, Knighton's stepfather, who played in the west gallery, and that he also played the violincello at home, filling the farmhouse with dancing and singing.
Sources
  • The Friends of St Andrew's, St Andrew's Church Bere Ferrers. A short history and guide, 2nd ed 1996
  • West Gallery Music Association wesbsite http://www.wgma.org.uk/index.htm accessed 14 July 2013
  • Exeter, West Devon Record Office, Bere Ferrers church rates 1237A/PW56A





Sir William Knighton, Nice and the would-be consul

9/7/2013

 
When Knighton visited Nice on the King's business in December 1824 he wrote home to chilly Hampshire about the green peas and artichokes he had just eaten, and the roses, violets, jonquils and jasmine blooming in the hotel garden. By November 1827 he owned property there.  Nice was popular with English people in uncertain health, and I suspect that Knighton's youngest daughter was not strong, but I have no details of the purchase or the property.

The British consul at Nice was Pierre Lacroix. Over the years Knighton mentioned him with respect, met his little girl, and grieved when she died.

Not all the British in Nice shared Knighton's affection for their consul. In June 1826 Thomas Major Pilton, who had lived in Nice for six years, petitioned the Foreign Secretary in London for Lacroix's removal. According to Pilton, so little happened at Nice that the consul's only duty was to sign passports, yet when British subjects needed Lacroix he was  never to be found. Instead he ran numerous lucrative sidelines, all of which involved charging commission. If His Majesty's Government insisted on employing a consul at a port with no trade they would do better to appoint 'some Poor but Brave retired Officer who had Fought and Bled in his Country's defence, and whose health having suffered in the service required a Salubrious Climate to renovate it.'

Lacroix survived Pilton's criticisms. 

This medical guide to Nice is from 1841. 
http://archive.org/stream/39002086471399.med.yale.edu#page/n3/mode/2up

Picture
L'Ancien port de Nice by Isidore Dagnan (1794-1873). Municipal museum of Orange, Vaucluse.
Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancien_port_de_Nice_(FR-06000)_de_Isidore_Dagnan.jpg
Photographed by fr:Utilisateur:Semnoz
Sources
  • Knighton, Lady [Dorothea], Memoirs of Sir William Knighton, Bart., G.C.H., Keeper of the Privy Purse during the Reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth. Including his correspondence with many distinguished persons, 2 volumes (London: Richard Bentley, 1838)
  • Chichester, West Sussex Record Office, Add Ms 22372
  • Kew, The National Archives, FO 67/74 



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