Samuel Reay

REAY, Samuel. b. Hexham, Northumberland, 17 March 1822; d. Newark, Nottinghamshire, 21 July 1905. His father was organist of Hexham Abbey. He sang as a chorister at Durham Cathedral and studied with William Henshaw and the Revd Peter Penson, the organist and precentor respectively; he was subsequently apprenticed to James Stimpson, organist of St Andrew’s Church, Newcastle, whom he succeeded in 1841, having already held appointments at North Shields and Houghton-le-Spring. He was later organist of St Thomas’s, Barras Bridge, Newcastle (1845); St Peter’s, Tiverton (1854); St Saviour’s, Warwick Road, London (1856); St Stephen’s, Paddington; Precentor of Radley College (1859, in succession to...