Salisbury

Abstract

Abstract At Archbishop Laud’s visitation in 1634 the choir of Salisbury consisted of ‘six vicars chorall, wch are to be in holy orders, seaven singing men, which are not required to be in holy orders and six choristers of wch seaven singing-men, one is teacher of the choristers, and another organist’. By this time the ‘singing men’, originally members of the college of vicars, had become mere stipendaries. By September r66r there were four vicars choral, six lay vicars, and seven choristers; and once the full number had been reached, it was more or less maintained throughout the period. In 1686, for instance, the vicars comprised the statutory six priests and seven laymen (each paid ꌕ20 a year), all of whom were said to be satisfactory in their attendance, though most of the priest vicars served parishes dose by. At that time the choir was made up of seven trebles, four countertenors, four tenors, and five basses.