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• Contents
• Introduction
• Lord Danby
• The music
• The Inventory
• Bibliography
• Literature/li>
• Musical sources

Lord Danby

The title Earl of Danby was granted in 1674 by Charles II to his Chief Minister, Thomas Osborne; this title passed by courtesy in 1689 to his son, the distinguished naval officer Peregrine Osborne. The title then passed to his two grandsons, William Henry (Earl of Danby 1694), and Peregrine Hyde Osborne (Earl of Danby 1711). The latter’s son, Thomas, was born Earl of Danby, becoming Marquis of Carmarthen at the age of 16, and 4th Duke of Leeds in 1731 while a student at Christ Church College, Oxford. The title Earl of Danby then fell into abeyance.

In December 1706 the Duke of Leeds, an old man in retirement but still not without political ambitions, sent his grandsons aged 16 and 13 to Utrecht in Holland, ostensibly for their education, but also, it seems, to shield them from a scandal involving their father and a certain ‘Mrs Morton’. Further possible motives were for the Duke to keep in touch with the rapidly, moving events of Marlborough’s campaign in Flanders and to remind the Hanoverian heirs to the English throne of his former service to their cause (see below). He engaged a reliable governor, one Louis Bérard, formerly of the Duke of Devonshire’s household at Chatsworth, who reported the young Lords’ progress in a remarkable series of weekly letters which has been preserved almost intact. With these letters were sent detailed financial accounts, and they also contain comprehensive reports of political and military news and rumours. The letters contain a wealth of information about the education of the two young men, which included music as part of the curriculum, and about the places visited and ‘persons of quality’ met. Payments were made for daily music lessons and for instruments, music and strings bought, as well as repairs, instrument cases and even ‘2 desks for Musick’. It is quite clear from the Bérard letters that Lord Danby’s instrument was the lute, which already in February 1707 ‘his Lordship learns as fast as any body can do, & will certainly play as well as any person of his quality can pretend.’ After some initial resistance from his grandfather, Lord Peregrine was allowed to learn the bass viol and the flute (presumably the recorder, although ‘a German flute for Ld. Peregr.’ was bought in May 1710; at least seven other ‘flutes’ were bought for him during the period); as the cautious Bérard explains: ‘I would not have him to stick altogether to the flute, lest he should chance to Impair his lungs by blowing too much.’ At various times there are references in the letters to music-making with other amateur players, and with their teachers and professionals engaged specially for the purpose. These soirées eventually took the form of regular weekly concerts to which ‘persons of quality’ were invited, others paying an entrance fee to defray expenses.

After spending some three-and-a-half years in Utrecht, with frequent excursions to other Dutch towns, the party travelled in September 1710 to Hanover to pay their respects to the Electress Sophia (1630-1714), heir apparent to the English throne since the 1702 Act of Settlement, and her son, the Elector Georg Ludwig (1660-1727), who later became King George I of England on Queen Anne’s death in 1714. The Duke of Leeds had been partly responsible for the marriage of William and Mary in 1677, and thus had materially assisted the Hanoverian cause, so the young Lords were well received at the Hanover court. During this stay in Hanover their time was largely taken up with social activities, but after the Carnival in the New Year they resumed their musical studies in February 1711. In November 1710, while the court went hunting, they had visited Hamburg for about five weeks, where they were well looked after by the English Resident, John Wich, who gave ‘every day a concert to their Lordships, knowing they are lovers of Musick.’ While in Hamburg they took further lessons on their instruments, and Lord Danby bought a ‘Lute, Musickbook & Strings’ for £71.10.0 (in ‘Dutch money’—£6.10.0 in English currency). The very high price compared with their other purchases of instruments raises the possibility that Lord Danby might have bought a lute by the great Hamburg instrument-maker Joachim Tielke (1641-1724), but this cannot be verified. According to Bérard’s accounts, they visited the Hamburg opera 11 times during this stay.

The party returned to Utrecht in July 1711 and plans were made for trips to Antwerp and Brussels. But this highly successful Continental sojourn was tragically cut short by Lord Danby’s death in a smallpox epidemic in Utrecht soon after his 21st birthday in August 1711. Peregrine, who now assumed his brother’s title, and Bérard at once returned to England. It is most unlikely, given Peregrine’s preference for the viol and the flute, and the fact that he held the title for a year only before becoming Marquis of Carmarthen on his grandfather’s death, that he was the ‘Lord Danby’ of the lute book; the same applies to his son, known as Lord Danby only until the age of 16.