ABSTRACT
The music at St Botolph Aldersgate seems in some respects to have been typical of that at many City churches during William Byrd's boyhood. The pre-Elizabethan accounts of St Marv-at-Hill, unlike those of most other City churches, are well preserved. In the sixteenth century St Mary-at-Hill, sandwiched between St Mary Hill Lane and Love Lane, was the largest of five churches in Billingsgate ward. An association between St Mary-at-Hill and the singers of the Chapel Royal can be traced back to 1527. There is no later evidence that the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal were engaged to sing at St Mary's, since the extant accounts end early in Queen Elizabeth's reign. William Culver, who was the conduct at St Dunstan in the West in Queen Mary's reign and the early years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was succeeded by Roger Markes, who had previously been at St Martin Vintry and St Clement Danes.
