Positioned in the East Midlands of England in an area of Lincolnshire known as ‘South Holland’, the market town of Spalding is today a bustling economic centre. Nevertheless, even in the eighteenth century the town enjoyed a certain level of prosperity, despite its relative inaccessibility from the capital. In addition, its situation away from the ‘Great North Road’ meant that the town was never going to be a major hub for travellers, unlike nearby Stamford, which was a regular stopping point for the stagecoaches that ran between London and Edinburgh. Instead, most of Spalding's wealth came through the drainage of the surrounding marshland, known as the fens, for agricultural purposes. Daniel Defoe visited the town in 1724 and described it as ‘not large, but pretty and well-built and well inhabited’. He noted that the surrounding ‘land [was] very rich’ and used to feed ‘prodigious numbers of large sheep…and oxen…the overplus and best of which goes all to the London market’; there was also a significant trade in Lincolnshire Wool. Additionally, the town was a sea port, with ships connecting Spalding, via the river Welland, with The Wash estuary and North Sea.Footnote ¹ Given Spalding's rural situation, it comes as something of a surprise that this town would become the home of such an august institution as the Spalding Gentlemen's Society (hereafter referred to as the ‘SGS’).

During the eighteenth century there was a significant rise in the number of clubs and societies in the English-speaking world; Peter Clark estimates that there may have been as many as 25,000.Footnote ² These societies could take a number of forms, including groups of Oxford or Cambridge alumni, but they could also be associated with a plethora of subjects such as books, flowers, gambling, freemasonry and music.Footnote ³ Nevertheless, the history of British associative groups can be traced back much further; Clark thought the seminal event was the 1586 founding of the London-based Antiquaries Society.Footnote ⁴ After the Glorious Revolution, there was a national expansion of societies outside London and, by the time of Queen Anne's death, they ‘were increasingly regarded as a necessary component of public sociable activity’.Footnote ⁵

Musicians were actively involved with many of these groups and a large number composed music for use at their meetings. Although many of these societies revolved around music and the social activity that is music making, this was not always the case.Footnote ⁶ For instance, Thomas Ebdon, the organist of Durham Cathedral, may well have been a member of his local musical society but he was also a prominent freemason composing a march and an anthem for the inauguration of the County Durham Grand Provincial Lodge in 1788; additionally, he was an honorary member of a dining club which met at Skull Hall, Sunderland.Footnote ⁷ The Edinburgh ‘Revolution’ club occasionally included music at their meetings, such as that held to commemorate the birthday of Frederick III, King of Prussia.Footnote ⁸ However, the existence of many societies is only known through the reports of their activities in the local newspapers and, in some cases, only a single reference to a group might survive. One such group, the Durham Friendly Society, is known to have occasionally incorporated communal music making into their meetings; for their 1788 anniversary celebrations ‘Several excellent songs were sung’ including ‘the beautiful duet and chorus’ God Save the King. Footnote ⁹ There was a Friendly Society at Dalston in Cumbria who organized a ball in 1790 and another based at Stamford;Footnote ¹⁰ a song dedicated to the latter was published in the Stamford Mercury on 12 September 1782, to be sung to the tune ‘Kitty Fell’.

Even though there has been detailed research into several British musical societies, little work has been done on music production within non-music societies, presumably due to the inadequacy of extant records.Footnote ¹¹ However, in the case of the SGS, not only are there detailed accounts of their meetings but also comprehensive records of both the musicians and the music played at their concerts. Furthermore, their minute books shed considerable light on the Spalding Musical Society, with which group there was extensive collaboration.

The roots of the SGS were laid in 1707, in which year a number of well-educated gentlemen based in London set out to hold a weekly meeting in order to investigate and discuss the ancient history of Great Britain. In amongst this group was the barrister Maurice Johnson (1688–1755)Footnote ¹² and the celebrated antiquary and physician William Stukeley (1687–1765).Footnote ¹³ They had helped re-establish the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1717 with Johnson as Librarian and Stukeley as Secretary; Stukeley was in addition a member of the Royal Society and the College of Physicians. In 1710 Johnson had returned from his legal studies at the Inns of Court and established himself as a lawyer in the family's firm at his home town of Spalding; in that same year he founded the SGS as a means to maintain the intellectual life that he had enjoyed in London.Footnote ¹⁴ ‘The Spalding Gentlemen's Society was then officially established by the creation of a formal constitution in 1712 by Johnson, who became its secretary; he remained in post until 1748 when he became President. Because of Johnson's dedication and diligence the society's minute books, which are in six volumes and span the years 1712–58, contain a detailed record of what was discussed at their meetings; in addition, the SGS's archive contains a substantial number of letters which shed significant light on the society's eighteenth-century connections.Footnote ¹⁵ The SGS met weekly between the 1720s and the 1760s to discuss a diverse range of topics and to receive correspondence from national and international members.Footnote ¹⁶ Its regular members were drawn from the local gentry, clergy, professional men and merchants. Any topic could be deliberated except for issues associated with religion and politics, but there was a particular focus on antiquarian matters and natural philosophy as these were respectively the main areas of interest for Johnson and Stukeley. There was also a group of honorary members elected because of their social standing or academic achievements, some of whom never made the journey to Spalding.Footnote ¹⁷ The most notable of these were Alexander Pope, Sir Hans Sloane and Sir Isaac Newton.Footnote ¹⁸

There was, in addition, a number of professional musicians affiliated with the organisation, the majority of whom did not live in Spalding and would have only attended meetings intermittently. Musgrave Heighington, the organist at Great Yarmouth, became a member in 1736 and made several donations to the society's collection; for instance, in 1742 he sent what the SGS described as ‘a fine piece of Musick’ and a copy of the treatise A Brief History of Musick.Footnote ¹⁹ Among other members there was the Master of Music at Grimsthorpe Castle, Edmund Chapman, the composer, trumpeter and flautist, John Grano, and the Drury Lane violinist Richard Jones. Furthermore, John Gay, famous for his association with The Beggar's Opera, was a member, as was Charles Jennens, well known for his link with Handel.Footnote ²⁰

In the early years of the society there were few if any activities that involved music. However, a minute for December 1726 records that there was a ‘Consort of Musick…whereof 16 members and 8 other Gent with many Ladies whom the Society take the Honour of Entertaining’. As the SGS was a male-only organisation, ladies could not be members but they were invited to the concerts and treated with refreshments during the intervals. The reference to the ‘Consort’ almost certainly refers to the Spalding Musical Society who had, by that time, been in existence for at least six years. Johnson, in a letter dated 14 October 1720 and sent to Stukeley, revealed that nothing gave him ‘the pleasure which the Consort do[e]s at their Musick meetings, which are weekly’.Footnote ²¹

In the wake of the 1726 concert there grew a desire that the society's anniversary should be marked in an appropriate manner. At a meeting held on 9 November 1727 it was proposed that there should be ‘a Consort after dinner for the Ladies and that the Soc[iety]. might have an Opportunity of Entertaining them and Treating them with a Glass of Wine and a dish of Tea’. The following week the proposal for an annual dinner was passed by ballot although it was not until 4 January 1728 that the event took place. Johnson, however, thought little of it, writing that it ‘proved a Very Idle and Expensive method of celebrat[in]g the anniversary of this Society as to feeding the Body instead of the Mind. But the Consort answered well and did the Institution Credit and Service.’ When a proposal was put forward for another event in January 1729 a decision was reached that the event should be postposed to Whitsuntide, by which time the weather should have improved. However, the 1729 event does not appear to have taken place or, if it did, it went unrecorded. Likewise no concerts appear to have been held in the years 1730 to 1732. The next hint that an anniversary concert might be organized is recorded in a minute from 12 October 1732, when an agreement was reached with William Willesby, a member of both the musical society and the SGS, that the musicians could hold a ‘Musick Meeting’ in the SGS's museum on a Friday if they gave a concert for the society on the ‘first Thursday in January’. The concert took place on 4 January but, unlike the 1728 attempt, Johnson thought more highly of the result and fancifully contemplated that every meeting should begin with ‘an houre or Twos Concert’.Footnote ²² Although we do not know who most of the musicians were, one appears to have been Joseph Hinson as the treasurer's accounts show that his subscription was waived on this occasion; Hinson seems to have been involved with music at the SGS until 1741.Footnote ²³ Another performer and SGS member was the Spalding merchant, Robert Butter, who played the bassoon.Footnote ²⁴ In 1727 Mr Thacker, a member of the Spalding Musical Society, requested permission to place a harpsichord in the museum, which he intended to learn to play. Permission was granted, as long as he would give a concert every Thursday after dinner; how long these weekly performances were maintained is unknown. The harpsichord was, in 1739, replaced with another manufactured by Paulus Grimaldi; it was purchased by subscription, to which the SGS contributed five guineas.Footnote ²⁵

In January 1734 the consort performed with ‘the eminent Mr [Richard] Jones Master of Music’ who also played in lieu of his subscription; one member of the SGS, William Bogdani, referred to Jones as ‘that celebrated and compleat Master’ in his 1734 account of the music of the ancients.Footnote ²⁶ As well as Hinson, Thomas Greaves and William Brand also appear to have performed.Footnote ²⁷

The death of a society member, Joshua Ambler, one of the original subscribing members and Johnson's father-in-law, led to the postponement of the 1735 concert until 16 January.Footnote ²⁸ In 1736 it was a Mr Rowse who played; he performed ‘several sonatas finely and imitated the French Horn & preachd a Quaker sermon upon the violin’.Footnote ²⁹ He was paid 10s 6d for his performance. At the same meeting it was again proposed that, given the inclement weather, the concert should be postponed until the last Thursday in August; the motion was passed.Footnote ³⁰ Clearly the anniversary meeting was a popular event, as in August of that same year the society held another.Footnote ³¹ At the August meeting a dissertation entitled A Short Introduction to Musick, written by Bogdani, was read by Dr John Green and Mr Rowse.Footnote ³²

In 1737 a visiting musician was brought in to perform and lead the ensemble, namely Dr Musgrave Heighington. In the previous year Heighington had given a concert in the school at Peterborough. The minutes of the Peterborough Gentlemen's Society record for 30 June 1736 that he had played:

Johnson was a member of the Peterborough Gentlemen's Society and may have first heard Heighington during a visit to that city. He thought highly of Heighington's musical abilities and described him as ‘an Ingenious Composer, [and] an Elegant Scholar’.Footnote ³⁴

At the 1737 SGS concert Heighington and his son performed alongside Rowse and the consort.Footnote ³⁵ He was back again in 1738 bringing along his wife and son with ‘some fine Italian musick just brought over’ (Figure 1).Footnote ³⁶ That year's concert was much bigger and held at Henry Everard's in Spalding; he was another member of the SGS and was paid 10s by the society for the use of his room.Footnote ³⁷ It was planned that the evening would start at 5pm with music, of which there would be four acts with the concert ending at 9pm, after which the SGS members would meet until 10pm. During the three intervals drinks would be served; tea and coffee at around 6pm, and wine at around 7pm, 8pm and at the conclusion of the concert. The programme included excerpts from Heighington's setting of Alexander's Feast along with an anniversary ode (Figure 2).

Figure 1.

Letter from Musgrave Heighington to Maurice Johnson, dated 7 August 1738.

Source: Reproduced with the kind permission of Spalding Gentlemen's Society.

Figure 2.

Plan for the SGS's 1738 Anniversary Concert.

Source: Reproduced with the kind permission of Spalding Gentlemen's Society.

The setting of an ode became an annual occurrence. In a letter to Stukeley, Johnson reflected on the concerts: ‘Besides some of the Newest & best Italian Musick, Wee have allways performed some Odes of Anacreon & Horace in their own words, & One suitable to the Occasion, which (as the Laureats Birthday Ode) is renewd yearly by some Cibber of our Own.’Footnote ³⁸ The texts for two of the anniversary odes survive (see Appendix 2), but sadly the music does not.

Odes were relatively popular in eighteenth-century Britain. Some, written by the Poet Laureate and set to music by the Master of the King's Music, were composed for the monarch's birthday and to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. Like those written for the SGS, the music to most is lost, although examples by Greene and Boyce do survive. There is also the famous example written by Handel for Queen Anne's birthday in 1713. Odes were also commonly used to celebrate St Cecelia's Day, of which the most famous is Handel's setting of Alexander's Feast. Footnote ³⁹ The setting of odes in Latin or Greek was much rarer. Latin songs were performed at Oxford as part of the annual academic ceremony known as ‘the Act’, and the fact that works in these languages were performed at the SGS reflects the academic background of its members. However, Heighington's published set of Six Select Odes of Anacreon in Greek And Six of Horace in Latin (1744) appears to be unique for this time.Footnote ⁴⁰

Both of the two surviving SGS odes would have begun with an extensive overture.Footnote ⁴¹The overture in the 1739 ode was then followed by a three-part chorus, repeated at the end, in between which each member of the Heighington family sung a verse, firstly Heighington himself, followed by his wife and son (Appendix 2a). All three stanzas were presumably written in the style of an aria and it appears that this ode, like a typical court ode, had no recitatives.Footnote ⁴² In contrast, the 1743 ode is much more substantial and incorporated a greater variety of movements. This ode contained at least one recitative; the ‘Recitative Cantabile’ was presumably written in an arioso style. The ode also contained arias, a duet and more than one movement described as a ‘cantata’ which may have been scored for a small chorus (Appendix 2b).Footnote ⁴³

In an undated letter, which is believed to date from 1739, Johnson sent Heighington the text to that year's ode.Footnote ⁴⁴ The composer ‘immediately put pen to paper and Composd the enclos'd tune and parts [now lost] that very night’. He had intended to send the music to Johnson by the next post but delayed sending his ode setting until he could give Johnson ‘a taste of’ his new overture to Alexander's Feast.Footnote ⁴⁵

There was some doubt as to whether Heighington would be able to attend the 1740 concert, so a programme of instrumental music was prepared presumably at the recommendation of the musical society. Once Heighington confirmed his attendance, a revised programme was drawn up. The venue for this year changed as well, and it was held at the ‘Grene Room’ at Sir John Oldfield's Hall, hired at a cost of 10s. One of those admitted gratis, a Mr Rogers, was most likely either Walter Rogers, a Stamford town wait, or his son Charles.Footnote ⁴⁶ In 1741 the venue changed yet again, this time to Spalding Town Hall. Heighington directed the concert and the music was chiefly composed by him. However, there was a rise in costs that year as, among other additional expenditure, there was a payment of 1s made for the ‘Porteridge [sic] of [the] Harpsicord’ and another 1s for ‘carrying out the bass’. One of the performers appears to have been John Hutchinson from Grantham; another, Howson Hargrave, had organized an assembly at Newark earlier that same year.Footnote ⁴⁷ In 1742 Heighington, as well as organising the anniversary concert, promoted a benefit concert at Spalding that coincided with the carnival. He proposed to bring along Mr Porter, who played violin and flute.Footnote ⁴⁸ James Allan, the organist of St Boltolph's, Boston, was also in attendance; he played the harpsichord and sang for the SGS.Footnote ⁴⁹

The anniversary concerts continued to take place in the following years; the ode for 1743 was written by the Spalding schoolmaster, William Jackson (Appendix 2b),Footnote ⁵⁰ but by 1745 the concerts appear to have been in decline as, in that year, Heighington was the only musician not to pay his subscription. The reason for this deterioration may have been due to a reluctance among members of the musical society to pay the fees demanded by imported musicians, a situation exasperated by a reduction in their numbers. During his 1745 visit Heighington organized an assembly and concert that was held in the town hall, presumably with the assistance of the musical society:

Heighington was not involved in 1746 and other musicians were brought in. They included a Mr Hartley, who was a Junior Vicar at Lincoln Minster, an amateur organ builder and concert organizer.Footnote ⁵² Additionally Mr Tiesdale, Mr Laues, Mr Crawthorne and John Roberts were admitted gratis.Footnote ⁵³ However, the treasurer recorded that ‘this Concert was very Expensive to the Gent[lemen] of the Musick meeting therefore to move the Soc-[iety] to Omitt Celebrating the Anniversary Untill the Concert be fuller & stronger’. In 1747 it was reported ‘that as the resident Performers were reduced to very few, [and that] unless those abroad, or Other Gentlemen were pleased to come to assist them, It would not be practicable without hireing Hands, which it was Unanimously determined not to be done by the Society, nor expect^d of the Gentlemen of the Concert.’ As a result, the anniversary concerts came to an end. Johnson had hopes that they might be resurrected in 1749 but it appears to have come to nothing.Footnote ⁵⁴ Heighington also wrote to the SGS in 1750 offering his services for the anniversary concert, but his proposal was declined. Despite the ending of the anniversary concerts the Spalding Musical Society continued to operate as, in 1750, Johnson recorded how Allan, along with the Boston schoolmaster Mr Muskutt, had paid a visit to a Spalding concert and that the musical society had ‘furnished them’ with around 60 volumes of concertos; he also mentioned that members of the Spalding Musical Society had visited Boston to perform in Allan's ‘Grand [Benefit] Concert’.Footnote ⁵⁵

In regards to the music performed by the musical society, we know that in 1727 they owned music by Corelli, Robert Valentine and Vivaldi. Given the vogue for Italian music in Britain at this time, this does not come as a surprise.Footnote ⁵⁶ In addition, the ‘Musical Society at Spalding’ subscribed to Charles Avison's Two Concertos from 1742. Furthermore, there was a John Everard of Spalding, who was the town's schoolmaster in the 1760s; he subscribed to several works including A Cantata and Six Songs (1750?) by ‘A Gentleman of Oxford’, and William Boyce's Twelve Sonatas (1767). As to whether this particular Everard was a member of the musical society or the SGS is currently unknown.Footnote ⁵⁷ In terms of music subscription lists, the most interesting is that for Heighington's Six Select Odes which features not only a good number of members of the SGS, but also includes eminent musicians such as Handel, Williams Hayes and Maurice Greene. Members of the SGS to subscribe included Johnson, John Green and Bogdani. Heighington was clearly well connected and there are a large number of subscribers from the aristocracy and the clergy, as well as some wealthy patrons of the arts such as Colonel John Blathwayt. There are also a significant number of musicians from the North East including Charles Avison, John Garth and James Hesletine, while several subscribers came from Norfolk (Appendix 3).Footnote ⁵⁸

Heighington's skill as a composer, as seen in these works, is not particularly remarkable. The opening Overture to Anacreon's Odes has a standard four-movement paradigm consisting of a Largo-Andante, Vivace non presto, Aria-Larghetto and Menuetto Vivace. As can be seen in Example 1, the opening is written in the tradition of the French ‘ouverture’, with a particular indebtedness to Handel; presumably the overtures to the SGS's odes would have been composed in a similar style:

Example 1.

Musgrave Heighington: Overture to Anacreon's Odes, opening.

The odes themselves are comprised of three in Greek set to texts by Anacreon and another three by Horace in Latin. Further examples along with other manuscript works by Heighington survive in the library of Christ Church, Oxford.Footnote ⁵⁹ The published odes are scored for strings and basso continuo with additional markings for trumpet, flute, oboes and horns; this probably reflects the instruments that were available at Spalding. Like the SGS's odes, the text is divided into sections with each set in a contrasting style. There are aria movements, along with both secco and accompagnato recitatives. Surprisingly there are no choruses and most of the odes were intended for performance by a single voice. The exception is the third of the Latin odes, which is a duet for Lydia (soprano) and Horace (tenor) and was presumably originally performed by Heighington and his wife (Example 2). Nevertheless, it is only in the final section that they sing together. This movement is certainly attractive if not particularly ambitious:Footnote ⁶⁰

Example 2.

Musgrave Heighington: Ode Donec gratus eram, final movement, bars 14–29.

The extant programmes shed considerable light on not only what was performed at the anniversary concerts but also on the repertory of the Spalding Musical Society (see Appendix 1). Understandably, they include a good deal composed by Heighington, including his odes. One staple item was his setting of Dryden's Ode on St Cecilia's Day, also known as Alexander's Feast. This work was written in 1726 and first performed at Dublin.Footnote ⁶¹ Heighington was by no means the only British composer to be represented at the Spalding concerts. The York composer and cellist, John Hebden, visited the area on several occasions to give concerts and is known to have been at Stamford in both 1739 and 1745.Footnote ⁶² His concertos for bassoon and oboes were never published and presumably circulated in manuscript; these works are unfortunately lost.Footnote ⁶³ Henry Heron's bass (presumably cello) concerto is also lost, while John Humphries opp 2 and 3 concertos were all published posthumously in c.1740 and 1741.Footnote ⁶⁴ That Humphries’ concertos appear on the Spalding programme for 1740 gives a strong indication that the musical society were acquiring some of the latest published music from London. Other British composers whose music featured at the SGS concerts include that by the blind organist John Stanley, Henry Purcell, Samuel Howard and William Felton.Footnote ⁶⁵

Italian music was understandably well represented at the concerts; music by both Corelli and his pupil Geminiani was performed.Footnote ⁶⁶ However, the repertory included music by some more obscure composers, whose works had presumably been acquired in manuscript on Heighington's behalf and sent to him in England. The concerto by the Neapolitan composer Dionisio Zamparelli would have been acquired in such a way.Footnote ⁶⁷ The ‘Overture to Titus Vespasian’ may also have been obtained in manuscript form and was possibly taken from the opera Tito Vespasiano by Johann Adolph Hasse, whose music was used at other SGS concerts; this opera was first performed in 1735.Footnote ⁶⁸ However, this particular overture could also have been taken from La Clemenza di Tito and, if this is the case, there are two main possibilities as to who the composer might have been. One is Francesco Veracini, whose version of La Clemenza di Tito was staged at the King's Theatre, London on 12 April 1737.Footnote ⁶⁹ Works by Veracini were also included in other SGS concerts.Footnote ⁷⁰ Another possibly is the Viennese composer, Antonio Caldara.Footnote ⁷¹ Heighington certainly knew Caldara's music since he produced a ‘Pastoral Opera' by Caldara in 1726, for which Heighington translated the text from Italian into English and the leads were performed by him and his family.Footnote ⁷² Other Italian composers represented at Spalding include Giuseppe Alberti, Baldassare Galuppi, Carlo Tessarini, Antonio Lotti, Giovanni Buononcini and Pietro Locatelli.Footnote ⁷³ Naturally Handel's music was also performed at Spalding, including the overtures to Deidamia, Alexander's Feast, Saul, Atalanta and Xerxes. Footnote ⁷⁴ There is also music by John Lampe.Footnote ⁷⁵

As well as the concerts themselves, it was not unusual for the SGS to discuss music-related matters at their meetings. In December 1728 Johnson provided a ‘Poem on Polly Peachum Girle who sings at the Beggars Opera’; the premiere of The Beggar's Opera had taken place in London on 17 January 1728 and was first performed at Stamford less than three months later.Footnote ⁷⁶ In 1728 the SGS's treasurer gave an account of some developments in harpsichord construction made by the Revd Dr Long of Orton, ‘particularly a power of swelling the notes’. At the same meeting a second instrument invented by Long was discussed which resembled a lute and Welsh harp;Footnote ⁷⁷ they also deliberated over a set of chimes, invented by Mr Eyre of Kettering, which could play several tunes. In June 1734 Johnson brought to the meeting a fragment of church music which, based on the style of handwriting, they believed dated from c.1400 and on 22 November 1744 there was a discussion of the history of the organ. In December 1737 the pension awarded by the King of Spain to the famous castrato, Farinelli, was discussed and there were also reports by John Green on the anthems by Maurice Greene, performed at St Paul's for the 1728 and 1729 Feasts for the Sons of the Clergy. Theoretical works were also debated. In 1744 it was James Harris' Three Treatises and on 28 June 1753 Avison's An Essay on Musical Expression, which according to Johnson was ‘read with much pleasure’ :Footnote ⁷⁸

A well as organizing their own activities, members of the SGS occasionally visited music-related events within the town. In a letter to Stukeley, written in 1719, Johnson remarked on a play that was to be staged at the school. To coincide with this performance ‘Every Night a Consort of Corelli and Albinonis Compositions [was to be] performed by the Gentlemen of this Town & from Norfolk & North'tonshire seaven Violins 3 Bases a Bassoon & a Trumpett all very good performers with a Ball on the fourth Night & Assembly’.Footnote ⁷⁹ At a 1726 meeting the performance of the Italian rope dancer, Madam Violanta, was discussed. Her performance featured ‘a Man fixed in a…sling on to Each of her Leggs & a Child on her Shoulders’. The majority of the artistes who visited Spalding hired a room at the town hall for their performances, with the applicable fee paid to the Spalding Town Husbands.Footnote ⁸⁰ Most of these payments were made by theatrical groups; the earliest of these dates from 1711 when ‘the players’ paid £1 ‘for the use of the Town Hall’.Footnote ⁸¹ A regular theatrical group to visit Spalding was that belonging to Mr Herbert; his association with this town was to last for over 50 years.Footnote ⁸² The town hall also appeared to have been the venue of choice for most visiting musicians, but the record of their hire more often than not was never recorded in the Spalding Town Husbands' account books, presumably as either the fee was waived or the payment was not made directly to them. Heighington's 1745 concert is not recorded in their accounts, nor is that given by John Hebden. A handbill for Hebden's Spalding concert is held in the SGS archive, along with another organized by the Welsh harpist John Parry (Figure 3); the latter's concert included music by Corelli, Handel, Geminiani, Vivaldi and Hasse, ‘interspers'd with English and Scots Airs.’ Footnote ⁸³ The town hall was also a venue for assemblies; in 1727 Maurice Johnson paid £1 ‘for ye use of ye Town hall…[for] the Ladies assembly’, with the music presumably provided by the musical society. Many of these assemblies were arranged to coincide with the town's race week, when Spalding would be particularly busy and a good return could be guaranteed.Footnote ⁸⁴

Figure 3.

Handbill for a concert held at Spalding for the benefit of John Hebden.

Source: Reproduced with the kind permission of Spalding Gentlemen's Society.

Spalding Gentlemen's Society is a today a highly regarded institution and has increasingly become a hub of academic research. Its unique records are an important resource for researchers, as is its museum which contains a varied collection of items from around the world that span most of human civilisation.Footnote ⁸⁵ What it is perhaps not as well known for is the quality of its records in relation to music. Music production, although by no means the chief topic of discussion at the SGS's meetings, did have a place in this society's life during the eighteenth century. Musical performances were given to mark the society's anniversary and the Spalding Musical Society, although separate to the SGS, collaborated with them and utilized the SGS's building for their meetings and to store their music and instruments. Frequently musicians were drawn in from other towns to perform, the most notable of whom, Musgrave Heighington, returned annually for nine years. Members of the SGS were also involved in other music-related activities in Spalding, such as assemblies, and attended theatrical productions. One imagines that the musical activities of a learned society such as the SGS are far from unique but the survival of their exceptionally detailed records gives us a glimpse into a world of which today very little evidence remains.