A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Lutheran Chapel, of St. James's Palace

by William H. Husk

LUTHERAN (German) CHAPEL, of St. James's Palace. The building now used as the German Chapel is said to have been erected about 1626 by Inigo Jones, for Queen Henrietta Maria, who had been permitted the free use in England of her religion. In 1662 it was assigned for the like purpose to Queen Catherine of Braganza, the first mass being celebrated on Sept. 21 in that year. The choir was composed of Italians, and the soprani were eunuchs. At the Revolution the friars were expelled, and the chapel was in Dec. 1688 appropriated to the use of French Protestants. Shortly afterwards a service in Dutch was also established in it for the benefit of the followers of William III. About 1703, Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark established a German Lutheran service in a small chapel in the Middle Court of St. James's Palace, which was in 1781 transferred to the present chapel, the French and Dutch services being removed at the same time to the chapel vacated by the Germans, where they were performed until their discontinuance in 1839. Upon the removal, a new organ was erected in the chapel. The present organ, by Snetzler, was built for Buckingham House, and removed here prior to the demolition of that edifice in 1825. The organists since 1781 have been Augustus Friedrich Christopher Kollmann, died Aug. 23, 1829; George Augustus Kollmann, died March 19, 1845; Miss Joanna Sophia Kollman, died in May, 1849; and Frederic Weber, the present organist. [App. p.706 "The last sentence of the article should run:—The organists since 1784 have been Augustus Friedrich Karl Kollmann, died Easter Day, 1829, etc."]

[ W. H. H. ]