Robert Dallam's Grave

[Clarabella8]

You may know that Robert Dallam is buried at the west door of New College chapel, Oxford. His gravestone records that he died in Lancaster on the last day of May 1665 at the age of 63. Given that he was not, as far as I know, a resident of Oxford, nor an alumnus of the university, does anyone know how he came to be afforded this honour? Obviously, the Dallam/Harris family undertook a good deal of work in Oxford, including Robert's organ for New College chapel in 1663 and (probably) the chamber organ later bought from the College by Sir John Sutton which is now in the possession of our host, but I wouldn't have thought that a relationship based on trade alone would be a sufficient reason for him to be granted burial there? Any thoughts would be most interesting.

 

On another note, if anyone might be kindly willing to put me in touch with a copy of Dominic Gwynn's report on the Knole House organ pipework I would be hugely grateful: the link to it on the G&G website is broken. If you haven't yet discovered the Harley Reports available there I recommend a look: lots of invaluable info and made freely available by the good folk at G&G.

 

Many thanks

 

Clarabella

[Clarabella8]

Further to which, I see now that the gravestone inscription is misquoted in the version of the Dictionary of National Biography that I consulted: it actually says that Robert was the son of Thomas etc etc from Lancashire. So presumably he died in Oxford.

 

Clarabella

[Christine Jose Rigby]

You may know that Robert Dallam is buried at the west door of New College chapel, Oxford. His gravestone records that he died in Lancaster on the last day of May 1665 at the age of 63. Given that he was not, as far as I know, a resident of Oxford, nor an alumnus of the university, does anyone know how he came to be afforded this honour? Obviously, the Dallam/Harris family undertook a good deal of work in Oxford, including Robert's organ for New College chapel in 1663 and (probably) the chamber organ later bought from the College by Sir John Sutton which is now in the possession of our host, but I wouldn't have thought that a relationship based on trade alone would be a sufficient reason for him to be granted burial there? Any thoughts would be most interesting.

 

On another note, if anyone might be kindly willing to put me in touch with a copy of Dominic Gwynn's report on the Knole House organ pipework I would be hugely grateful: the link to it on the G&G website is broken. If you haven't yet discovered the Harley Reports available there I recommend a look: lots of invaluable info and made freely available by the good folk at G&G.

 

Many thanks

 

Clarabella

 

This article from The Organ magazine gives us some more information.

The Dallam family originated in Dallam, Near Warrington (then in Lancashire, and now in Cheshire).

http://www.theorganmag.com/articles/sultan.html

[Vox Humana]

Yes, the tombstone at New College states that he was the son of Thomas Dallam of Dalton in the county of Lancashire. The current DNB (which, if your local library subscribes, you should be able to access online with your library card) states:

 

"Dallam's last work was for New College, Oxford, where, after re-erecting his two-manual instrument of 1631 (moved to Hampton Court between 1654 and 1660), he proposed a new organ of two manuals and twenty-four stops in the French style with mixtures, reeds, and mutations. However, he was prevailed upon to continue the native pre-Commonwealth style. While completing this organ he died on 31 May 1665, aged sixty-three or in his sixty-third year, and was buried outside the north-west door of the chapel. His tombstone, engraved in Latin (with the family arms, ermine, two flanches, each charged with a doe passant), celebrated his enrichment of ‘numerous districts in Europe by means of the art in which he peculiarly excelled’."

 

The sources quoted for the article are:

B. Matthews, ‘The Dallams and the Harrises’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 8 (1984), 59–68 · M. Cocheril, ‘The Dallams in Brittany’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 6 (1982), 63–77 · M. Sayer, ‘Robert Dallam's organ in York Minster, 1634’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 1 (1977), 60–68 · J. Harper, ‘The Dallam organ in Magdalen College, Oxford: a new account of the Milton organ’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 9 (1985), 51–65 · gravestone, New College, Oxford.

I do not know whether the author of the DNB entry, Dr Christopher Kent, reads this forum, but he does have a Facebook page. He has also written an entry for Thomas Dallam.