Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phillips, Arthur
PHILLIPS, ARTHUR (1605–1695), musician, son of William Phillips of Winchester, was born in 1605, and matriculated from New College, Oxford, on 15 Nov. 1622. In 1638 he was organist at Bristol; in 1639 organist of Magdalen College, Oxford; in 1640 he graduated Mus. Bac., and from 1639 to 1656 was choragus or professor of music at Oxford. He became a Roman catholic, resigned his post at the university, and served Queen Henrietta Maria as organist in France. On his return to England he became before 1670 steward of John Caryll the elder of Harting in Sussex. He died on 27 March 1695. His will was proved by his nephew, Hugh Phillips, who succeeded to the stewardship, and died in 1696.
Phillips composed music in several parts to poems and hymns by Dr. Thomas Pierce [q. v.], including ‘The Resurrection,’ 1649, and ‘The Requiem, or Liberty of an imprisoned Royalist,’ 1641. A fancy, upon a ground, by him, is in British Museum Addit. MS. 29996, fol. 193 b.
[Wood's Fasti, p. 283; Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, ii. 191, 283; Hawkins's Hist. ii. 584; Grove's Dict. ii. 705; Caryll Papers, Brit. Mus.; Addit. MSS. 28240–28253, passim; Brit. Mus. Charters, 19024, 19027.]