ABSTRACT
Edward Finch, Valentine Nalson, and William Knight were a trio of musical clergymen living within the precincts of York Minster during the first four decades of the eighteenth century. This chapter sets out to explore their musical remains, and in doing so throws light on the musical activities associated with the Minster close, and, inevitably, on the musical establishment of York Minster itself. Their musical activities, as surviving evidence implies, were mainly to do with the composition and copying of music, but the existence of several sets of parts also suggests the possibility, if not the probability, of musical performance. George Benson’s map (see Figure 2.1), a recreation of what the Minster close would have looked like in the eighteenth century, shows it as that area of land, almost square in size, which is bounded by the city walls between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar, and the streets of Goodramgate and Petergate. Until 1836 it was subject to the sole jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of York. The Bedern, which was the residence of the vicars choral of York Minster, was adjacent to the south-east corner of the Minster close. 1 Our chronological boundaries, for the purposes of this study, are set at 1704, the date when Finch was appointed a prebendary of York Minster, and 1739, the year in which Knight died.
