A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kirkman
KIRKMAN. The name borne by a family of eminent harpsichord, and subsequently pianoforte makers. Jacob Kirchmann (afterwards Kirkman) a German, came to England early in the last century, and worked for Tabel, a Flemish harpsichord maker, who had brought to London the traditions of the Ruckers of Antwerp. [See Ruckers.] Another apprentice of Tabel's was Shudi, properly Tschudi, who became Kirkman's rival, and founded the house of Broadwood. Tabel would have been quite forgotten, but for these distinguished pupils, and for the droll anecdote narrated by Dr. Burney, of Kirkman's rapid courtship of Tabel's widow and securing with her the business and stock in trade. He proposed at breakfast-time, and married her (the marriage act being not then passed) before twelve o'clock, the same day, just one month after Tabel's demise. Jacob Kirkman carried on business at the sign of the King's Arms in Broad Street, Carnaby Market, now No. 19 Broad Street, Soho; still owned by the present Kirkman firm. Dr. Burney places the arrival of Jacob Kirkman in England in 1740, but that is manifestly too late, Shudi being then already established in business in Great Pulteney Street. There is no reason, however, to doubt the same generally excellent authority that his death took place about 1778, and that he left nearly £200,000.
Burney, in Rees's Cyclopaedia, gives Jacob Kirkman's harpsichords high praise, regarding them as more full in tone and durable than those of Shudi. These instruments retained certain features of the Antwerp model, as late as 1768, preserving André Ruckers's keyboard of G—F (nearly 5 octaves) with lowest G♯ wanting. This, as well as the retention of the rosette in the soundboard may be seen in Mr. Salaman's Kirkman harpsichord of that year, in which we find King David playing upon the harp, between the letters I and K. Dr. Burney met with no harpsichords on the continent that could at all compare with those made in England by Jacob Kirkman, and his almost life-long competitor, Shudi.
Jacob Kirkman having no children by his marriage, was succeeded by his nephew Abraham, whose son Joseph, the first Joseph Kirkman, followed him, and introduced the manufacture of the pianoforte into his workshop. [App. p.691 "add that the piano was introduced in Kirkman's workshops in the time of Abraham Kirkman, as there is record of a square piano inscribed Jacob and Abraham Kirchmann, which was dated 1775. The grand piano dated 1780 was also theirs."] His son, the second Joseph, died at the advanced age of 87 in 1877, his second son Henry, to whom the business owes its present extension, having died some years before. The ware-rooms have long been in Soho Square. The business is carried on (1879) in trust for the present Mr. Joseph Kirkman, the third in order of succession so named. A recent invention of this house is noticed under the head of Melopiano.