suffering indignities without number, which he endured with the utmost fortitude, Tregian was finally removed to the Fleet, where his wife joined him. He remained in prison for twenty-four (or, according to some accounts, twenty-eight) years, during which time he suffered much from illness, but occupied himself by writing poetry, and about the end of Elizabeth's reign he was released on the petition of his friends, though his estates still remained forfeited. In 1606 he left England on account of his ill-health, and went to Madrid. On his way he visited Douay (July 1606), and at Madrid he was kindly received by Philip III., who granted him a pension. He retired to Lisbon, and died there Sept. 25, 1608, aged 60. He was buried in the church of St. Roch, and soon came to be regarded as a saint. His body was said to have been found uncorrupted twenty years after his death, and it was alleged that miracles had been worked at his grave. Francis Tregian had no less than eighteen children, of whom eleven were born in prison. The eldest son, who bore his father's name of Francis, on June 29, 1608, bought back the family estates for £6,500, but in the following year he was convicted of recusancy, and part of the lands were again seized. In 1611 he is said to have compounded with the Crown, to have sold the rest of his property and gone to Spain, where he was made a grandee, and became the ancestor of the St. Angelo family. He was living in 1620, and probably did not die until 1630, when an inquisition was held of his lands. Another son of Francis Tregian the elder's, Charles by name, was educated at Rheims, and entered the household of Cardinal Allen. After the Cardinal's death (1594), Charles Tregian wrote a 'Planctus de Morte Cardinalis Alani.' He is said later to have served with the Spanish army in the Netherlands, and was living in 1611.[1]
It will thus be seen that the connection of the Tregian family with the Netherlands was even closer than Mr. Chappell suspected, but it was impossible that the Virginal book could have been written by the elder Francis Tregian, who (according to Oliver) was the author of the sonnet prefixed to Verstegan's work. If the account of the younger Francis Tregian's settling in Spain is accurate, it is hardly probable that he was the transcriber of the MS. But whoever the actual scribe was, the series of dated pieces by Peter Philipps (pp. 134–165), who was an English Catholic ecclesiastic settled in the Netherlands, and possibly a connexion of Morgan Philipps, one of the first Professors of the Douay College, the note (p. 284) to the Pavana of Byrd's (who was all his life a Catholic), the heading of the jig (p. 306), 'Doctor Bull's myselfe ' (Bull went to Holland in 1613), all point to the conclusion that the collection was formed by some one who was intimate with the Catholic refugees of the period, while the probable connection of the book with the Tregian family, the details of whose misfortunes are more interesting than the above short sketch can convey, lends to it a value beyond that of its musical contents.
The earliest account of this collection of Virginal music occurs in the Life of Dr. John Bull in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors (1740), in which is printed a list of Bull's compositions contained in it. Ward states that his information was derived from Dr. Pepusch, who communicated the contents of the volume to him, describing it as 'a large folio neatly written, bound in red Turkey leather, and guilt.' In this no mention is made of the book having belonged to Queen Elizabeth. In 1762 it was bought for 10 guineas at the sale of Dr. Pepusch's collection by R. Bremner, who gave it to Lord Fitzwilliam, in whose possession it was in 1783. It is next noticed in Hawkins's History (1776), where it is first stated to have been in Queen Elizabeth's possession. Hawkins also tells the story (repeated by Burney) of Pepusch's wife, Margherita de l'Epine, having attempted to play the music it contained, but although an excellent harpsichord player, never having been able to master the first piece, Bull's Variations on 'Walsingham.' Burney (1789) adds the well-known account of Elizabeth's playing to Sir James Melvil, with the remark that if she could execute any of the pieces in the Virginal Book, she must have been a very great player, as some are so difficult that it would be hard to find a master in Europe who would play them without a month's practice. Burney's acquaintance with the MS. must have been very slight, as he describes Peter Philipps's Fantasia on p. 158 as a regular fugue for the organ. Burney's remarks have been repeated by several writers, amongst others by Steevens, in his notes to 'Winter's Tale' (1803), but with the exception of Mr. Chappell's conjecture nothing further has been discovered with regard to the origin or history of the book. A MS. index of its contents was in the possession of Bartleman, and from this a copy was made in 1816 by Henry Smith, and inserted at the end of the original volume. In Warren's edition of Boyce's 'Cathedral Music' (1849), a list of its contents was printed in the notes to the Life of Byrd, but this is in many respects inaccurate. In framing the following list some attempt has been made to give a few references to similar collections in which other copies of the compositions indexed may be found. The compositions mostly consist of airs and variations, the different sections of which are numbered consecutively. Thus the first piece in the book consists of 29 variations on the air 'Walsingham,' but as in the MS. the air itself is numbered 'I,' the number of sections is stated in the index to be thirty. The references to Mr. Chappell's work are to the edition already mentioned. The spelling of the MS. is generally retained, but in a few instances abbreviations have been omitted.
- ↑ Further information as to the Tregian family may be found in the following works:—Oliver's 'Catholic Religion in Cornwall'; Polwhele's 'History of Cornwall,' volumes iv. and v.; Catholic Miscellany for June, 1823; also in Add. MSS. 21, 203, and in the State Papers, particularly Domestic Series, James I. 1619, volume 41, and 1620, volume 116.
