Thomas Dallam (1575 - after 1620) was an English organ-builder. Dallam served an apprenticeship and became a member of London's

Blacksmiths' Company The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The organisation was first mentioned in a court record in 1299. A Royal Charter officially granting it the status of Company was granted in 1571. The Com ...

. He travelled frequently to build organs on site, going as far as Turkey.

Family

Dallam was baptised in Flixton, Lancashire. His family came from Dallam, near

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. A number of his descendants were also organ-builders.

Organs

During 1599 and 1600 Dallam went on a voyage from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

in order to deliver an organ to the sultan

Mehmet III Mehmed III (, ''Meḥmed-i sālis''; tr, III. Mehmed; 26 May 1566 – 22 December 1603) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death in 1603. Mehmed was known for ordering the execution of his brothers and leading the army in the L ...

. The instrument was commissioned as a present from Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

and could be played normally or by clockwork. On arrival, the organ took many weeks to assemble. Dallam kept a diary of his journey, which was published in the nineteenth century by the

Hakluyt Society The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishing rol ...

. Dallam afterwards built many important organs, including that of

King's College Chapel, Cambridge King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bui ...

. In 1616 he supplied an organ for the Chapel Royal at

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinbu ...

.Frederick Devon, ''Issues of the Exchequer'' (London, 1836), pp. 189, 325. Unfortunately, much of his work was destroyed by people hostile to church organs following the outbreak of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. In the case of King's College Chapel, the existing instrument is the product of successive rebuilds, and it is not known for certain whether it contains any of Dallam's work, but it is believed that some of the case is his.

References

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica profile
* * People from Flixton, Greater Manchester 16th-century English people British blacksmiths British pipe organ builders British travel writers Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain 17th-century English people 17th-century diarists {{UK-music-bio-stub