Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/44

I shall quote another piece of mortuary evidence, from the will of John Baude, of Woolpett, dated 1501:

"I wyll that the tenement namyd the Cok w^t all the ptynaunce thereto belonging, be solde by the hande of my executors, and the mony thereof comying, the fyrst p^t I will it be gwovyn to synge for me and all my benefactors by the term of a holl yer, and the ij^de p^t of the mony, as fast as y^t may be receyuyd, I will ther be brought one peyre of orgynys to the Church of Wulpett."^[1]

The Rev. Sir William Cope, in a brief but interesting paper, on "Early Organ Builders in England," printed in "The Parish Choir," was the first to bring forward the name of one William Wotton, of Oxford, as "the earliest organ builder in this country," of whom any trace could be found.

I am, however, constrained to deprive Wotton of this honour, having produced many claimants of an earlier date.

1. These extracts from ancient wills are derived from Sir H. Nicolas's "Testamenta Vetusta," and the "Bury Wills," printed for the Camden Society.