The Early English Organ Builders and their work/Appendix VI
VI.
Harris's Agreement with the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford to Improve and Enlarge his Grand-father's Organ.
(From the Appendix to Dr. Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College.)
Articles of Agreement had, made, concluded and agreed upon June 6, In the Second year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord and Lady, William and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., Anno Domini 1690, between the Right Rev. Father in God, John [Hough] Lord Bishop of Oxford, President of the College of St. Mary Magdalen in the University of Oxford, and the Scholars of the said College on their part, and Renatus Harris, of the City of London, Organ-maker on the other part, in manner following, that is to say:
Imprimis, It is covenanted, concluded and agreed upon by and between the said parties to these presents, and me the said Renatus Harris, in consideration of the money to be paid unto him as hereinafter mentioned, doth for himself, his executors and administrators, covenant and grant to and with the said President and Scholars and their successors, by these presents, that he the said Renatus Harris, his servants, workmen and assigns, shall and will in good and workmanlike manner put the great and choir organs in, Magdalen College aforesaid into sound, good and perfect repair in all ill parts and defects whatsoever, and shall new work and repair the three bellows and make them strong, staunch and good; and all the wood-trunks and conveyances of wind shall repair, make good and staunch, and shall new work and amend all the defects in the sound-boards, and make them staunch and sound, and shall and will make new pallets, springs and wind-chest to the soundboards of the said organs, and shall and will make good and serviceable all the movements and roller-boards of the said organs, and shall make two sets of keys of good ebony and ivory, their fall to be as little as can be to give the pipes their due tone, and the touch to be ready, soft and even under the finger.
Item, That the said Benatus Harris, his servants, workmen or assigns, shall and will make to the great organ a new great twelfth of metal, a cedirne of metal, and a furniture of three ranks and a cymbal of two ranks, and shall and will repair, well voice, and tune, in the great organ, the open diapason, principal of metal, stop-diapason of wood, fifteenth of metal; which great organ shall consist of five hundred sixty and one pipes: and make to the choir organ a new flute of metal and nason of metal, and repair, well voice and tune in the choir organ the principal, stop-diapason and fifteenth, which said choir organ shall consist of two hundred and fifty pipes; and if the said new pipes or stops to be made in the said organs shall not be liked, or approved of, by such organist as the said President and Scholars shall appoint to inspect the same, that then the said Renatus Harris, his executors or assigns, shall take down such stops and pipes as shall be disliked of as aforesaid, and put in their places such new ones as shall be approved of under the same conditions as are hereby agreed to. And if any pipe or pipes belonging to the above-named stops cannot be made to speak well and bear a good tone, strong, clear and sweet, either through want of substance or any other defect; that then in such case the said Renatus Harris, his executors or assigns, shall and will put in new serviceable pipes in the places of such as shall be found so deficient and not useful; and that the said Renatus Harris, his executors or assigns, shall and will alter the pitch of the said organs half a note lower than they now are: and the said organs, being now Gamut in Do, Sol, Re, the said Renatus Harris, his executors or assigns, shall and will in good workmanlike manner completely finish on or before the Feast of All Saints' next ensuing the date hereof.
Item, In consideration of the said work and workmanship to be done and performed as aforesaid, the said President and Scholars, for them and their successors, do covenant and grant to and with the said Renatus Harris, his executors, administrators and assigns, by these presents, that the said President and Scholars, or their successors or assigns, shall or will pay or cause to be paid to the said Renatus Harris, his executors or assigns, the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Pounds of lawful money of England, as followeth, viz., ten pounds at or before the sealing hereof, forty pounds on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ next ensuing, and one hundred pounds, being the remainder thereof, on the Feast of St. John Baptist, which shall be in the year of our Lord God 1691. For witness thereof, to the one part of these presents the said President and Scholars have put their common seal, and to the other part thereof the said Renatus Harris hath set his hand and seal, the day and year above written.