SOME ACCOUNT OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN SMITH AND HARRIS.
FOUNDED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED DOCUMENTS.
Of Father Smith's settlement in this country at the Restoration, and of Harris's arrival from France soon after that event, all that could be gleaned at this distance of time I have told in my "History of the Organ."
The first organ erected by Smith in this country was at the Chapel Royal of Whitehall. If it was the organ alluded to by Pepys, it must have been put up before July 8, 1660, when the gossiping old diarist speaks of having heard service performed in the royal chapel, "with the organs and singing men in surplices." That Smith enjoyed the patronage of royalty is a question beyond dispute. He was appointed "organ-maker in ordinary" to the king, and at one time occupied apartments in Whitehall, called, in an old plan, "the organ-builder's work-house."[1]
- ↑ At what time Smith was appointed royal organ-builder, I have not been able to discover. Among the records preserved in the Rolls Chapel is a grant "to Sir James Fane, organ-maker," of the fee of £20 per annum, dated April, 1661 This is another new name in the history of organ-building.
