A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dallam
DALLAM (spelt also Dalham, Dallum, and Dallans), the name of a family of English organ-builders in the 17th century. The eldest was employed in 1605–6 to build an organ for King's College, Cambridge, for which purpose he closed his workshop in London and removed his whole establishment to Cambridge. He and his men were lodged in the town, but boarded in the College Hall. Dr. Rimbault ('History of the Organ') gives a very curious account of every item paid for building this organ. It was destroyed in the time of the Long Parliament, but the case, with some alterations, remains to this day. This Dallam's Christian name does not appear in the 'college books, but he is most probably identical with Thomas Dallam, who built an organ for Worcester Cathedral in 1613. [App. p.604 "Thomas Dallam came to London from Dallam in Lancashire, and was apprenticed to a member of the Blacksmith's company, of which he afterwards became a liveryman. The organs which he built for King's College, Cambridge, and for Worcester Cathedral, were taken down at the time of the civil war; parts of the former are said to be contained in the existing instrument. He was in all probability the same Dallam who in 1615, 1632 and 1637 was employed to repair the organ of Magdalen College, Oxford."] The three following were probably his sons:—
Robert, born 1602, died 1665, and buried in the cloisters of New College, Oxford, for which college he built the organ; but his principal work was that of York Minster, since destroyed by fire. He also built similar organs for the cathedrals of St. Paul and Durham.
[App. p.604 "He was, like his father, a member of the Blacksmith's company. Between 1624 and 1627 he built the organ of Durham Cathedral, which remained till 1687, when Father Smith, after putting in four new stops, sold the Choir Organ for £100 to St. Michael's-le-Belfry, York. It remained there until 1885, when it was sold for £4 to an organ builder of York. It is said that Dallam received £1000 for the original organ, but there is no foundation for the statement. In 1634 he built an organ for Jesus College, Cambridge, in the agreement for which he is called 'Robert Dallam of Westminster.' He added pedals in 1635; the organ, after being taken down at the time of the civil war, was replaced at the Restoration. In 1635 he built an organ for Canterbury Cathedral. The Calendar of State Papers for the same year contains a bill of Robert Dallam's, dated Nov. 12, for work done to Laud's organ at Lambeth. An organ which he built for St. Mary Woolnoth's was so much injured in the fire of London, that it was replaced by a new instrument built by Father Smith, who, however, used some of Dallam's tops. (Dict. of Nat. Biog.; Hopkins and Rimbault, 'The Organ,' 3rd ed.) [See vol. ii. pp. 588–591.]"][ W. B. S. ]
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