8 - Boy Choristers

Summary

Numbers and hierarchies among boy choristers

As we have seen, the 1814 ‘Propos’d Establishment of the Castle Chapel’ recommended that the new choir have six boy choristers. The only information available on the boys in this period is contained in a letter of September 1817 from organist James Duncan in response to a query from the Under-Secretary as to why he ‘discontinued’ one of the boys, David Hastings, in the choir:

I was obliged to discontinue David Hastings from the Choir of the Castle Chapel, in consequence of the natural failure of his voice, and that from the same necessity which must exist in every boy who has passed the age of 15 years, Richard Gaudry, and John, and Charles Egan, were also discontinued.

No other substantial evidence concerning the boy choristers appears to survive until the 1830s. An ‘Allowance […] for six Singing Boys’ for the Castle Chapel appears in the parliamentary estimates for 1831, and it is possible that this allowance was in place as early as 1816. An account of annual expenses at the Chapel from May 1822 includes figures for the washing of three men's and six boys’ surplices, and since there were only three men in the choir in this period, the Sub-Dean's request in January 1823 for nine new choir surplices would seem to confirm there were six boys. Given, however, that not all the old surplices may have been replaced at this time, and that at least one of the new ones may have been a spare, these figures must be treated with caution.

No names of boys survive between Duncan's letter and a list of four ‘Boys of the Chapel Royal, 1837’ in one of the choir loft books. Only three of these names are legible: Henry A. Walker, Thomas Jackson and a second Jackson (perhaps with the first initial ‘P.’). The Musical World account that appeared the following year stated there were six boys in the choir, and the account of 1845 in the same publication claimed there were ‘four boy singers, who are paid’ and ‘a few supernumerary boys (who wait for the first vacancy amongst the paid boys)’. Presumably, therefore, the four names in the 1837 list were those of the four paid boys at that time, and excluded the two or more unpaid supernumeraries. A further such list that appears to date from 1850 also included four boys.