Samuel Webbe
7 October 1740—25 May 1816
Samuel Webbe, engraved by William Skelton, based on the painting by William Behnes, printed in the European Magazine (London, 1820).
SAMUEL WEBBE, esq., by his general, as well as professional erudition, the acuteness of his perception, the solidity of his judgment, the impressiveness of his language, his universal philanthropy, the simplicity of his heart, and the dignified amenity of his manners, excited the admiration and love of all who enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance. He afforded one of the most extraordinary instances of a life well spent, in the genuine sense of the expression, that is not often presented to our knowledge.
He was born in 1740, of parents of high respectability and independent fortune. His father was sent to Minorca, under some government appointment, while he was yet an infant of scarcely a year old; and having settled his establishment there, had already written letters for his wife, with her infant child, to join him, which, however, before the preparation for their departure could be completed, were followed by others announcing his death. Independent of the shock of his wife, this event was followed by unfair proceedings, and by the diversion of property from its rightful descent, on the part of those who had the power of controlling the disposal. His wife was thus reduced to a state of comparative penury, which proved disastrous to the future fortunes of his infant son. She could extend to him little advantage of education, but being intent upon rendering him capable of providing for himself, she bound him apprentice to a cabinet maker, at the early age of eleven years. This arrangement, however, was so little to his taste, that no sooner were the seven long years elapsed, than he determined to abandon the workshop, and contemplated with infinite regret what he regarded as a total loss of a considerable and valuable portion of his early life.
Within a year after this emancipation (for such he always considered it), he lost his mother, and with her the little means of support derived from her slender income. Thus destitute of any visible means of support, and still under twenty years of age, he turned his attention to the employment of copying music, as connected with an art of which he was passionately fond, but with as yet he was totally unacquainted. He obtained his principle employment from Mr. Welcher, keeper of a well-known old music shop in Gerrard Street, Soho, through whom he became acquainted with a musician of the name Barbandt, a professor of no particular skill, but from whom he rapidly acquired the rudiments of music, which his own intense study and observation soon enlarged into a thorough knowledge of the art.
At the expiration of his apprenticeship, he applied himself sedulously to the acquirement of Latin, and did not allow himself to be interrupted by the subsequent necessity of copying music for a subsistence, though, when fully employed, he would sit till past 12 at night, and return to it by 5 in the morning, for a week in succession. He followed the Latin by the study also of French, still appropriating every moment of intermission from those employments suggested by necessity, and excited by an anxious thirst for self-improvement, to the ardent study of music, of which he had now determined to make himself completely master.
His necessities were augmented, at the age of 23, by the addition of a wife, and in the following year, of a child; but as difficulties increased, so seemed also to increase his thirst of knowledge; and soon after the birth of his first child, he furnished himself with an Italian master. About this time he ventured to become a teacher of music, and his progress in the art fully warranted this undertaking, though he was then but 25 years of age, and it was but six years since his first acquaintance with the rudiments of music. From this period, scarcely a single year passed without producing the reward of one, and often two prize medals, down to the time when the club desisted from affording such liberal encouragement to that most delightful and social description of vocal music, glees. His literary studies were subsequently enlarged by the successive acquisition of German, Greek, and lastly, the Hebrew language; in the reading and understanding of which last (Hebrew), he was acknowledged, ten years ago, by his master, a venerable and skillful Rabbi, who visited him in that capacity, to be equal to himself.
Although it may seem of minor importance to speak, in the midst of a commentary upon the varied faculties and acquirements of his mind, of his bodily graces, it is in point to show, that in the vast range of objects which his ardent industry embraced, these coadjutors were not neglected, and in truth, he long excelled in the manly and graceful exercises of fencing and dancing. But superior to all these faculties of mind, and these graces of body, were the indescribable excellencies, the simplicity, the tenderness, the thorough goodness, of his heart.
His works are extremely numerous, as well as infinitely varied—having written largely for the Church; his anthems are in use in almost every cathedral in the country; he composed also two or three operas, many quartets, and instrumental lessons—numerous songs, some of them highly distinguished as public favourites, as “The Mansion of Peace,” etc., and gless innumerable, and so well known as to require no formal eulogium. As an English composer, he will always rank with Lock, Morley, Purcell, and Arne; while as a man and a scholar, his transcendent qualities raise him high among the most renowned of British worthies.
Gentleman’s Magazine (1816)
Featured Tunes:
see also:
Collections of Church Music:
An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782)
Part 1: PDF
Part 2: PDF
Part 3: PDF
A Collection of Sacred Music as used in the Chapel of the King of Sardinia (ca. 1785)
A Collection of Modern Church Music (1791): PDF
A Collection of Masses with an Accompaniment for the Organ (1792): PDF
A Collection of Motetts or Antiphons (1792): Google Books
Eight Anthems in Score for the Use of Cathedrals and Country Choirs (1794)
Twelve Anthems: Particularly Calculated for Families, or Small Choral Societies (1801): Google Books
A Collection of Original Psalm Tunes (1806): WorldCat
Manuscripts:
British Library Archives & Manuscripts: https://www.bl.uk/
Editions:
A Collection of Sacred Music as used in the Chapel of the King of Sardinia, ed. Vincent Novello (London: ca. 1843): PDF
Webbe’s Psalmody (London: Novello, 1853): WorldCat
Related Resources:
The Late Mr. Webbe’s Library of Books, Collection of Music, and Unpublished MSS. A catalogue of the entire and valuable library of books, and collection of music . . . which will be sold at auction by Mr. White . . . on Thursday July 4th, 1816: WorldCat
[Obituary,] Gentleman’s Magazine, ed. Sylvanus Urban, vol 86, pt. 1 (London: Nichols, Son, and Bentley, June 1816), p. 569: HathiTrust
[Obituary,] Gentleman’s Magazine, ed. Sylvanus Urban, vol. 86, pt. 1, suppl. (London: Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1816), p. 643–644: HathiTrust
William Linley, et al. A Requiem: To the Memory of the Late Mr. Samuel Webbe (London: Welsh & Hawes, ca. 1820): WorldCat
“The Late Mr. Samuel Webbe,” Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, vol. 4, No. 15 (London: 1822), pp. 362–369: HathiTrust
“Samuel Webbe,” A Dictionary of Musicians, vol. 2 (London: Sainsbury & Co., 1824), pp. 524–525: HathiTrust
William Alex Barrett, English Glee and Madrigal Writers (London: William Reeves, 1877), pp. 34–36: HathiTrust
J.A. Fuller Maitland, “Samuel Webbe,” Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 5 (NY: Macmillan, 1910), pp. 441–442: Archive.org
Richard Watson & Kenneth Trickett, eds., “Samuel Webbe Sen.,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing, 1988), pp. 559–560.
W. Thomas Jones, “Samuel Webbe Sr.,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 654–655.
Paul Weaver, “Samuel Webbe,” Grove Music Online (2001): https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44333
Philip Olleson, “Samuel Webbe,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (23 Sept. 2004): https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28933
Samuel Webbe, Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/person/Webbe_SE
Hymn Tune Index, ed. Nicholas Temperley: https://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/