John Chetham

CHETHAM, John. b. Almondbury, Yorkshire, 1688 (?baptised 8 June); d. 1746 (buried 26 June). He became master of the Clerk’s School, Skipton, on 7 July 1723 and curate of Skipton on 4 February 1741. Nothing is known of his musical career, but he is likely to have been a teacher and trainer of parochial choirs. Chetham’s sole contribution to musical history is A Book of Psalmody, imprinted in Sheffield with the year 1718 but already advertised for sale on 27 February 1717. It went into four more editions in his lifetime and a further 33 after his death, the last in about 1885 — an unsurpassed record for a tune book. The earlier editions are on the whole conservative, printing ‘correct’...