Henry Bevington

Henry Bevington (c. 1769 - 1850^[1]) was a prolific organ builder in London during the Victorian era. Many of his organs were erected in Australia^[2] and South Africa.^[3]

Bevington was an apprentice of Ohrmann & Nutt, and also of John Snetzler. He began his trade as journeyman with Robert Gray (Gray and Davison).^[4] He set up his own workshop in Greek Street, Soho, London in 1794,^[5] (this early date of 1794 is disputed), his earliest recorded organ is dated 1820. A fire damaged his works in 1854.^[6]

Bevington's organ building business was continued by his sons; Henry and Martin, in Rose Street, Soho, in the same premises as were occupied by Ohrmann. The organ of St. Martin's in the Fields and of the Foundling Hospital in London, and that of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, were built by the Bevington firm.^[7][8]

Bevington was an accomplished organist and was the organist at King's College, London.^[9][5]

Some organs built by Bevington

• St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town (17 February 1861)^[10]
• The Foundling Hospital, London (1855)^[11][12]
• St Swithin's Church, Wickham (1851)^[5]
• Nottingham Mechanics' Institution (17 October 1849)^[13][14]
• St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney (c. 1838)^[15]
• St Michael and St George Cathedral, Grahamstown (1860)^[16]
• Church of St. John the Evangelist,Kensal Green (1846) ^[5]
• The chapel at Stanbrook Abbey^[15]
• English College, Rome^[15]

See also

• George Fincham
• List of pipe organ builders

Notes and references

1. "England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription". search.findmypast.com. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via Findmypast. (subscription required (help)).
2. "Bevington Pipe Organ". South Australian Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2016-04-30.
3. van der Linde 1993.
4. Thistlethwaite 1999, p. 58.
5. Boeringer & Freeman 1989, p. 89.
6. "Fire At Messrs. Bevington's Organ Factory, Soho". London Daily News. 22 May 1854. p. 3 col C. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
7. de Pontigny 1900.
8. Thistlethwaite 2000.
9. "Advertisements & Notices". Derby Mercury. 17 July 1861. p. 4 col E. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
10. "WESTERN PROVINCE". Cape and Natal News. 1 April 1861. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via eGGSA Newspaper Extracts.
11. Thistlethwaite 1999, p. 258.
12. "New Organ for the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital.". Morning Advertiser. 9 October 1855. p. 3 col F. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
13. The British Institute of Organ Studies (2015). "Nottinghamshire Nottingham, Mechanics Hall [N13557]". The National Pipe Organ Register. Retrieved 2016-04-30. c1835
14. "Opening of the New Organ, Mechanics' Hall". Nottinghamshire Guardian. 18 October 1849. p. 3 col D. Retrieved 2016-04-30 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
15. CathDir 1838, p. 148.
16. "The Organ at the Grahamstown Cathedral". grahamstowncathedral.org. Retrieved 2016-04-30.

• Boeringer, James; Freeman, Andrew (1989). Organa Britannica: Organs in Great Britain 1660-1860 : a Complete Edition of the Sperling Notebooks and Drawings in the Library of the Royal College of Organists. Bucknell University Press and the Royal College of Organists. ISBN 978-0-8387-1894-0.
• The Catholic Directory, Ecclasiastical Register, and Almanac. 1838.
• van der Linde, Bernard (1993). "Book review, with special reference to the problem of the preservation of historically valuable South African organs". Ars Nova 25 (1): 55–65. doi:10.1080/03796489308566511. ISSN 0379-6485.
• de Pontigny, Victor (1900). " Bevington and Sons". In George Grove.  A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Wikisource. 
• Downes, Ralph; Sumner, William Leslie (1952). "The Organ". The Musical Times 93 (1313): 311. doi:10.2307/935203. ISSN 0027-4666. JSTOR 935203 – via Jstor. (subscription required (help)).
• Kent, Christopher (1992). "Book Review: The Making of the Victorian Organ by Nicholas Thistlethwaite". Music & Letters (Oxford University Press) 73 (2): 299–301. JSTOR 735949 – via Jstor. (subscription required (help)).
• Thistlethwaite, Nicholas (1999). The Making of the Victorian Organ. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66364-9.
• Thistlethwaite, Nicholas (2000). "Bevington". In Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Groves Dictionaries. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.

Further reading

• Bevington, Tony; Bevington, Jill; Bevington, Romana (2013). Bevington and Sons, Victorian Organ Builders. Preston House Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9576655-0-7.
• Douglas Earl Bush; Richard Kassel, eds. (2006). The Organ: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-94174-7.