Milgrove, Benjamin

Composer

b Bath, Som 1731, d Bath 1810. A seller of toys and fancy goods at Bond St, Bath; his profession was given as a ‘toyman’. By the mid-18th c he was also Precentor and Organist at Bath, at the chapel of Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion. While serving there in about 1769 he published Sixteen Hymns…Set to Music; Twelve Hymns…with Organ Accompaniments followed in 1772 and a further 12 in 1781, in a booklet dedicated to the Countess. Some of his hymns are arranged for alternate singing by men and women, with detailed instructions which helped to provide a standard unrivalled even in London; 4 of his tunes reached the A&M series. Like other organists, however, Milgrove did not always get his own way: ‘My music is sadly mangled’, he lamented, ‘for want of proper attendance to learn’. Later he became a joint-proprietor of John Wesley’s New King St Chapel, with a share which he sold in 1787 in Wesley’s old age. No.800.