some increase of numbers, up to the seventeenth century.[1] Although subject to some general supervision from the Lord Chamberlain and to that extent part of the Chamber, it was largely a self-contained organization under its own Dean. Elizabeth, however, left the post of Dean vacant, and the responsibility of the Lord Chamberlain then became more direct.[2] It probably did not follow, at any rate in its full numbers, a progress, but moved with the Court to the larger 'standing houses', except possibly to Windsor where there was a separate musical establishment in St. George's Chapel.[3] It does not seem, at any rate in Tudor times, to have had any relation to the collegiate chapel of St. Stephen in the old palace of Westminster.[4] The number of Children varied between eight and ten up to 1526, when it was finally fixed by Henry VIII at twelve.[5] The chaplains and clerks were collectively known in the sixteenth century
- ↑ At the coronation of James in 1603 (Rimbault, 127) there were a Sub-*dean, 7 Ministers, the Master of the Children, an Organist, 22 ordinary Gentlemen, and a Clerk of the Check; also a Sergeant, 2 Yeomen, and a Groom of the Vestry. This agrees with the Elizabethan fee lists, which give the total number of Gentlemen as 32. The coronation list does not name Epistolers; but it is clear from the notices of appointments in Rimbault, 1, that a Gospeller and Epistoler were appointed, as next in succession to the Gentlemen's places, although it does not appear that they were necessarily ex-Children. There were also Extraordinary Gentlemen (Rimbault, 31).
- ↑ Cf. ch. ii.
- ↑ H. O. 160. The hall and chapel are to be kept 'at all times when his Highnesse shall lye in his castle of Windsor, his mannors of Bewlye, Richmond, Hampton Court, Greenwich, Eltham, or Woodstock'; but 'in rideing journeys and progresses', only the Master of the Children, six men, six children, and some officers of the vestry are to attend. In the seventeenth century 'all removinge weekes' were amongst the 'auntient tymes of lyberty and playinge weekes' (Rimbault, 73). But the practice may have varied. Stopes, 252, gives a Stable warrant of 1554 for a wagon 'for the necessarie conveying and cariage of the Children of our Chapel and their man from place to place, at such seasons, as they by our commandment shall remove to serve where wee shall appointe them'.
- ↑ A chapel of St. Stephen existed in 1205. It was rebuilt and made a free collegiate chapel in 1348, and dissolved in 1547, and the building assigned as a chamber for the House of Commons (J. T. Smith, Antiquities of Westminster, 72; V. H. London, i. 566). It may have originated as a domestic chapel, but seems to be quite distinct from the Household Chapel by the sixteenth century. Thus its St. Nicholas Bishop had an old annual reward of £1 from the Exchequer (Devon, Issues of Exchequer, 222; R. Henry, Hist. of Great Britain^3, xii. 459; Brewer, iv. 869), while the Household boys got their reward of £6 12s. 4d. from the Treasurer of the Chamber. Wallace, i. 22, notes that the Masters of the Children 'all lived' at Greenwich, which suggests that this was the Tudor headquarters of the Chapel.
- ↑ Wallace, i. 22, 23, 26, 61, from patents of Masters; Fee List (passim).
