Edmund Ayrton › Texts

Edmund Ayrton, born at Ripon, England, in 1734, died in Westminster, London, May 22, 1808. Organist, pupil of Dr. Nares. He was elected, when quite young, organist of the collegiate church of Southwell; became in 1764 a gentelman of the Chapel Royal, and soon after vicar-choral at St. Paul's, and one of the lay clerks of Westminster Abbey. In 1780, on the resignation of Dr. Nares, he was appointed master of the children of His Majesty's chapels, which post he held until 1805. He received the degree of Mus. Doc. from the University of Cambridge in 1784, and was afterwards ad eundum by the University of Oxford. he was given this for his anthem, Begin unto my God this timbrels, which was performed in st. Paul's Cathedral, July 28, 1784, the day of general thanksgiving for the termination of the American Revolutionary War. Works: Two complete morning and evening services, several athems, and other church compositions.

Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians by John Denison Camplin, Jr. and William Foster Apthorp (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888)