William Byrd

If you saw the Coronation of King Charles III then you will have heard two pieces of music by the great Elizabethan composer William Byrd.

William Byrd’s life and music will be celebrated at Stondon Massey Church this summer.

These are short extracts from the book which will be published alongside a talk to be given at Stondon Massey Church on 30th June 2023.

On the south wall of St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, there is a memorial to one of England’s greatest composers.

Titled: “A Father of Mvsick”
Inscribed: “To the Glory of God and Memory of William Byrd
Who lived at Stondon Place In this Parish for the last Thirty Years of His life.
He died 4 July 1623 Aged Eighty
This Tablet was erected in 1923 in Celebration of the Tercentenary of His Death”.

The memorial was placed due to the efforts Reverend Canon Edward Henry Lisle Reeve who was the Rector of Stondon Massey from 1893 to 1935. Reeve was a keen local historian and “great supporter as well as a sterling advocate of Byrd’s music”. He wrote copiously and published a parish history, and a published article in ‘The Essex Review’ to mark the tercentenary of Byrd’s death.

Memorial in Stondon Massey Church commemorating the
Tercentenary of Byrd’s death

The Byrd Memorial was funded from money raised from the London Tercentenary celebrations. The Gentleman of the Chapel Royal attended the Dedication Service in 1924.

Reeve also received a copy of Byrd’s will, which still is in the Vestry. It reads:

“In the name of the moste glorious and undevided Triniyte Father sonne holy Gost three distinct persons and one eternall God Amen
I William Byrde of Stondon Place in the p[ar]ish of Stondon in the Countye of Essex gentleman doe nowe in the 80th yeare of myne age ….
… my body to be honnestly buryed in that p[ar]ish … of Stondon wheire my dwellynge is: And then to be buried neare unto the place where my wife lyest buryed. …
In wittnes theirof I the sayd william Byrd have sett my hand & seale the Fifteenth day of November … 1622”.

William Byrd’s signature on his Last Will and Testament

Byrd’s death in 1623 is recorded in the Chapel Royal Cheque Book: “Will[ia]m Bird, a Father of Musick died the iiiith of July, And John Croker, a co[u]nter ten[o]r of Westminster was admitted [th]e 24th of December following”. He probably died at Stondon Place or at the Earl of Worcester’s house in London and is thought to have been buried in Stondon Massey churchyard”.

Stondon Massey’s Parish Registers before 1708 have been lost. “Surviving parish records do not record that “any objection was raised to the burial of a Catholic in the churchyard at Stondon”.

“We can claim Byrd for a Stondon man”.

William Byrd was about 82 years old when he died. His family moved in Stondon Massey around 1594.

Byrd was a recusant Catholic who refused to attend the Services of the Church of England. While living at Stondon Massey, Byrd composed two books of illegal Latin religious music known as the ‘Gradualia’.

The first set of 1605 was dedicated to the Earl of Northampton, and the second set dated 1607 was dedicated to Byrd’s great friend and patron, Lord Petre of Writtle who lived nearby at Ingatestone Hall.

According to a household inventory dated 1608, the Petre family possessed “2 sets of Mr Byrd’s books intituled Gradualia, the first and second set”, as well as other books containing “songs” by the composer.

All the pieces were probably tried out at Ingatestone Hall before publication.

Byrd’s story is fascinating. Do come to the talk presented by several local people (including half-time refreshments). There will also be a Service on Sunday 2nd July starting at 3.00pm which will include Byrd’s music performed by the Stondon Singers. Then on Tuesday 4th July at 8.00pm, on Byrd’s commemoration day, book tickets for the Stondon Singers Special 400th Anniversary Concert.