A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sergeant Trumpeter

SERGEANT TRUMPETER. An officer of the royal household, who presides over 16 trumpeters in ordinary. The first mention of the office occurs in the reign of Edward VI., when it was held by Benedict Browne (who had been one of the 16 trumpeters to Henry VIII. at a salary of 16d. a day), at an annual salary of 24l. 6s. 8d. The office does not appear to have been regularly kept up for a very long period. It is not again mentioned in any list of royal musicians until 1641. No further notice of it occurs until 1685, when Gervase Price held it, and appointments to it have since been continuously made. Price was succeeded by Matthias Shore, one of the trumpeters in ordinary, who was followed in 1700 by his son William, who in his turn was replaced, a few years later, by his brother John, the most celebrated trumpeter of his time. [See Shore.] On John Shore's death in 1752 Valentine Snow, the most eminent performer of the day, for whom Handel wrote the difficult obbligato trumpet parts in his oratorios etc., obtained the appointment. Snow died in 1770, and for a long time the majority of his successors were not even musicians. [See Snow, Valentine.] One of them, however, John Charles Crowle, who held the office in 1812, deserves mention for having bequeathed to the British Museum the splendidly illustrated copy of Pennant's 'London,' so dear to lovers of London topography. About 1858 it was decided that the office should again be given to a musician, although not to a trumpeter, and Joseph Williams, the eminent clarinettist, a member of the Queen's band of music, received the appointment; and upon his death in April 1875, J. G. Waetzig, the excellent bassoon player, also a member of the Queen's band, was appointed his successor, and is the present holder of the office (1882). The salary of the office has long been £100 per annum. The Sergeant Trumpeter formerly claimed, under letters patent, a fee of 12d. a day from every person sounding a trumpet, beating a drum, or playing a fife in any play or show without his licence (for which license 20s. a year was demanded), and Matthias and William Shore successively issued advertisements in the newspapers authorising all magistrates to receive such fees for them, and apply them to the relief of the poor. Such privileges were, however, long since abrogated.

[ W. H. H. ]