A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Crang and Hancock

by Victor de Pontigny

CRANG & HANCOCK, organ builders. John Crang, a Devonshire man, settled in London and became a partner with Hancock, a good voicer of reeds. The latter added new reeds to many of Father Smith's organs. Crang altered the old echoes into swells in many organs, as at St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Peter's, Cornhill, etc. There appear to have been two Hancocks, John and James, probably brothers; both are mentioned in the contract for an organ at Chelmsford in 1772. John died in 1792, and James was living in 1820, and probably later. Crang appears to have given his name to Crang Hancock, a pianoforte maker.

[ V. de P. ]