and Sherborne St. John, near Basingstoke, and on 15 Oct. 1740 was elected usher of the free school of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke. In 1743 he became curate of Stratfield Turgis in Hampshire, and on 18 July 1743, through the influence of Lord Portsmouth with the lord chancellor, he was appointed master of the free school of the Holy Ghost by letters patent. This ancient foundation was at the time in a ruinous condition, and in 1743 Loggon had the estate surveyed, and suggested means for its improvement in a letter to John Russell, the town clerk of Basingstoke. He presented in 1744 a petition on the subject to Lord Hardwicke, and as he alleged that the corporation wrongfully withheld certain of the property, he treated the town council with insolence. On 7 Oct. 1745 the town clerk was authorised to take proceedings against him for neglecting his duties as schoolmaster, but as the inhabitants generally sided with Loggon nothing was done. On 16 Dec. 1746 he was instituted to the rectory of Stratfield Turgis, which he resigned in November 1748 on being presented to the vicarage of Damerham in Wiltshire by George Pitt of Strathfieldsaye, afterwards Lord Rivers. He died, unmarried, at Basingstoke about 1778, and was buried by his own desire, in a sawpit, in the churchyard of Strathfield Turgis.
Loggon was eccentric in his habits, wore two shirts, and drank stale beer. He collected a large number of manuscripts, which he offered to the corporation of Basingstoke if they would give him a piece of plate, but they declined the offer on this condition; the manuscripts passed to his nephew. He wrote:
- ‘The History of the Brotherhood or Guild of the Holy Ghost in the Chapel of the Holy Ghost near Basingstoke,’ Reading, 1742, 8vo; dedicated to Lord Hardwicke, with the suggestion that the author was a suitable person for the mastership. It was incorporated in a work on the same subject published anonymously at Basingstoke in 1819.
- ‘M. Corderii Colloquia,’ a very popular school-book, which reached a fourth edition, London, 1759, 8vo; 21st edition, London, 1830, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Braigent and Millard's Hist. of Basingstoke; Loggon's Works.]
LOGIER, JOHN BERNARD (1780–1846), musician, descended from a family of French refugees, was born in 1780 at Kaiserslautern in the Palatinate. His father and grandfather were organists, and the former gave him his early musical education. About 1790 he came to England, and for two years studied the flute and pianoforte. He then joined a regimental band conducted by Willman, father of the celebrated clarinet-player, and went with it to Ireland. In 1796 he married Willman's daughter, and took to composing for and teaching military bands and the pianoforte. On the disbanding of his regiment he became organist at Westport, co. Mayo, and while there invented a machine called the 'chiroplast,' designed to facilitate the acquirement of a correct position of the hands on the pianoforte, and devised the system of music teaching known by his name (for a description of the 'chiroplast' see Grove, Dictionary of Music, i. 346). Logier's method of teaching was novel in two respects: the use of the apparatus just named, and the plan of making several pupils, twelve or more, play at the same time on as many pianofortes. The system led to much controversy. Musicians in general were opposed to it, but Spohr expressed himself in its favour (Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1820), and Samuel Webbe [q. v.] adopted it in London. Several hostile pamphlets and articles (see list in Grove, i. 347) led to Logier inviting the Philharmonic Society and leading musicians to attend an examination of Webbe's pupils in London, 17 Nov. 1817. The results of this examination are detailed in 'An Authentic Account, etc., by J. B. Logier' (London, 1818), which was answered by 'An Exposure of the New System … published by a Committee of Professors in London' (London, 1818). Many pamphlets appeared later. Meantime, in 1821, the Prussian government invited him to Berlin, where he established a chiroplast school with such good results that the king asked him to instruct twenty professors, with the view of spreading the system over the whole of Prussia. He remained three years in Berlin, visiting England at intervals, and in 1826, having acquired a competency by the sale of his invention, the high fees he exacted for the use of his system, and his numerous classes, he retired and settled near Dublin, where he died 27 July 1846.
Logier arranged much music for the pianoforte, and composed sonatas and other pieces, including an ode for the jubilee of George III, performed in Dublin. Several works were written specially for his peculiar system, and he was the author of 'A Complete Introduction to the Keyed Bugle,' an instrument he is said to have invented. He was not without a taint of charlatanism; he established in Dublin a 'chiroplast club,' with a special button. He remarked to Mazzinghi that he 'considered himself an instrument in the hands of Providence for changing the whole
