The William Billings Singing School in 1774
This picture from the early 1900s shows the house then located
at the corner of Park and Seaver Streets in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
On the back of this old picture is the identification:
"Old Melcher Place. Let to right in picture: Mrs. Charles Jones(?),
Edwin A. Jones, Mrs. Henry Jones, Henry Jones. The ell of this building was part of the house of Robert Capen. The main part was built by Rev. Edw Richamond 1825."
The house was later moved and remodeled and now stands at 15 Seaver Street.
The original Capen house (formerly a tavern built in 1749) was where the famous Boston composer, William Billings (1746-1800), taught his singing school in January of 1774. Billings was the best known choral composer in 18th century America. His Stoughton singing school had 49 pupils and one of them later became a composer himself, Jacob French (1754-1817).
In that singing school, Billings also met his future wife, Lucy Swan, and they lived in Boston where they had a large family.
Here is an excerpt from "DEDICATION" - Singing in Stoughton, 1762-1992 by Roger L. Hall (PineTree Press):
1774
William Billings, then twenty-eight years of age, gave instruction in music, or, as they would have said, taught a singing-school in the tavern of Robert Capen. He interested the young people of Stoughton in his work, inspired them with his own enthusiasm, organized them into choirs, taught them to despise foreign music, especially that of England, and jumbled religion and patriotism into his stanzas with such a grace that he became the most successful organizer of music in America.
This is the list of 49 young women and men in the singing-school held in January of 1774,
and taught by Boston composer, William Billings:
Trebles (Sopranos) = 18
Chloe Bird
Keziah Bird
Mindwell (or Mendevill) Bird
Hannah Briggs
Irene Briggs
Bethiah (or Bertha) Capen
Hannah Capen
Rachel Capen
Waitstill Capen
Elizabeth Cummings
Patience Drake
Mary French
Eunice Holmes
Hannah Holmes
Jerusha Pope
Lucy Swan+
Meltiah (or Melatiah) Swan
Sarah Tolman
Tenors = 21
Dr. Peter Adams
Andrew Capen++ (son of Robert Capen -- see below)
Susanna Capen
Jerusha Dickerman
Elizabeth Dickerman
Mary Fenno
Rebecca Fenno
Jacob French +++
Lydia Gay
Abigail Jones
George Monk
Lazarus Pope
Robert Swan, Jr.
Esther Talbot
Mehitabel (or Mehitable) Talbot
Ruth Tilden
Elizabeth Tilden
Abigail Wadsworth
Hannah Wadsworth
John Wadsworth
Joseph Wadsworth
Note: It was customary in the eighteenth century for both men and women to sing the tenor line, an octave apart.
Counters (Male Altos) = 5
Theophilus (or Theodore) Capen
Eliphabet Johnson
Isaac Morton++
Thomas Tolman
David Wadsworth++
Basses = 5
Jonathan Belcher
John Capen
William Tilden
Samuel Tolman++
George Wadsworth++
+ = Lucy Swan married William Billings, in Stoughton on July 26, 1774.
++ = One of the 5 singers who later joined the Stoughton Musical Society in 1786.
+++ = He became a singing-master and composer. Jacob French was born
in Stoughton in 1754 and died in Simsbury, Connecticut in 1817.
Andrew Capen
First Treasurer of Old Stoughton Musical Society
Andrew Capen (shown in above picture from the Old Stoughton Musical Society History published in 1929)
was born at Stoughton, Mass., 22 November 1757,
and
died at Dorchester, Mass. 1 June 1846 due to "old age."
He married 16 April 1789 to Hannah Richards (1770-1843). He was a soldier from Stoughton during the Revolutionary War,
however there is no Revolutionary War Pension for him.
Andrew was the son of Robert and Jane (Lyon) Capen of Dorchester and Stoughton, Mass.
The singing school with Billings was held in Robert Capen's house in 1774.
Andrew did not have a Probate filed in Suffolk or Norfolk County Massachusetts, therefore died without a Last Will & Testament.
Source for genealogical detail on Andrew: The Capen Genealogy (1908), p. 72
https://archive.org/details/capenfamilydesce00hayd_0/page/80/mode/2up?q=ANDREW+
and https://archive.org/details/capenfamilydesce00hayd_0/page/48/mode/2up?q=ANDREW+
Andrew was buried at Granary Cemetery, Boston, in old Tomb # 129 with his wife and son:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20496146/andrew-capen
-The above information was provided thanks to David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist,
American Ancestors & New England Historic Genealogical Society.
New publication now available!
DEDICATION: Singing in Stoughton, 1762-1992
Available in two formats:
PDF book (200 pages) - sent by email attachment
DVD-ROM with bonus audio and video files - send by US mail
Thanks to the efforts of musicologist, Roger Lee Hall, the Old Stoughton Musical Society (OSMS) was listed as America's oldest choral society in The Guinness Book of Records and in Chase's Calendar of Events.
He served as the first Chairman of the Stoughton Arts Council from 1980 to 1984, and also was a member of the Massachusetts Arts Advisory Committee during the 1980s.
Between 1979 and 1987, he was the Historian and Vice-President of the Old Stoughton Musical Society.
He also organized two music festivals:
"Music in Old New England" (1978) and "Musick in Old Boston" (1980)
He was also Chairman of the Bicentennial Committee of the Old Stoughton Musical Society in 1986.
In 1980 he discovered all the manuscript music of E.A. Jones and especially his major work, the cantata titled, Song of Our Saviour, which received its World Premiere performance in Stoughton in 1992 and was written about in the Boston Globe newspaper.
Hall was the OSMS conductor for several seasons and composed two songs for them:
"Peace" - premiered in 1981 for the Stoughton Town Hall Centennial.
"Dedication" - premiered in 1986 for the 200th anniversary
of The Old Stoughton Musical Society
To read about his preservation efforts, click on this link -- Saving Local Music
He is now Director of the Center for American Music Preservation [CAMP].
These are a few of his music programs presented at the Stoughton Public Library:
"E.A. Jones: His Life and Music" (1984)
"Old Stoughton and The Grand Constitution" (1987)
"A Stoughton Musicfest: A Celebration of Local Composers and Musicians" (1990)
"Lincoln and Liberty" (2009)
Roger Hall is available to present his entertaining and educational music programs
for colleges, high schools, libraries, historical societies or other organizations.
See his music programs listed at this link:
Lectures and Workshops
