by Stuart Handley
© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved
Aldrich, Henry (1648-1710), dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was born at Westminster on 15 January 1648 and baptized on 22 January 1648 at St Margaret's, Westminster, the eldest son of Henry Aldrich (d. 1683) and his wife, Judith Francis. After the Restoration, Aldrich's father became a retainer of the Berkeley family, serving in 1664 as clerk to the royalist soldier, John, first Baron Berkeley of Stratton, extraordinary commissioner of the navy. Pepys refers to the elder Aldrich in 1667 as 'Captain Aldrich that belongs to my Lord Berkeley' (Pepys, 8.255), and in 1679 Aldrich himself referred to his father serving Berkeley for 'many years before his death, and is still of that family' (Ormonde MSS, new ser., 5.11-13). In 1682 Aldrich's father was referred to as 'auditor' to James, duke of York (afterwards James II).
Aldrich's name appears in the school lists at Westminster in 1656 and he was elected a king's scholar in 1658. From there he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 19 July 1662. He graduated BA in 1666, proceeding MA in 1669. He became a tutor at Christ Church, which, under John Fell, dean from 1660, attracted many scions of the aristocracy. While a young man he may have received musical tuition from Edward Lowe, professor of music at the university. By 1670 he had probably come into possession of the collection of books and manuscripts assembled by Christopher Hatton, first Baron Hatton, which included several printed music scores, which became the core of his music collection. At the university festivity of encaenia in 1672 Aldrich set to music some verses written by Fell, the start of a long association with music at Oxford University ceremonies. He was also a humorist, gaining a reputation as a 'punner of the first value' (Suttle, 128) and in 1673 wrote perhaps his most famous catch, 'O the bonny Christ Church bells'. That year he was recommended to Henry Oldenburg for his 'kindness, learning and scholarship beyond his years I cannot sufficiently commend' (Hist. U. Oxf. 4: 17th-cent. Oxf., 371). Aldrich's many talents ensured that he served as tutor to many noble students, including Charles Fitzroy earl and later duke of Southampton (1674), James Butler, the future second duke of Ormond (1676), and Charles Boyle, afterwards fourth earl of Orrery. In 1674 Aldrich published Elementa geometricae, which may explain John Perceval's description of him in 1675 as 'a great mathematician of our house' (Suttle, 120). He had by this stage developed a practical interest in architecture, and in 1675 and 1676 supervised the repair of St Mary's Church, Oxford, alongside Maurice Wheeler, rector of another Oxford church, St Ebbe's. From 1676 Aldrich was probably responsible for the design of most of the Oxford Almanacks, published annually, with much of the engraving also being done under his supervision.
Aldrich's role as tutor to the tory peerage bore fruit when the commission of ecclesiastical affairs appointed him on 4 February 1682 to the vacant canonry at Christ Church. He was installed on 15 February. On 2 March he proceeded BD and DD. One of his first tasks was to join in the attack on Samuel Johnson's tract opposing the succession of the duke of York to the throne, Julian the Apostate (1682), preaching a sermon on 29 October 1682. In October 1683 he became a founder member of the Oxford Philosophical Society and spoke on hearing and the ear at a meeting. In 1685 five catches composed by Aldrich were published in a collection entitled Catch that Catch Can. By this time Aldrich was leading weekly music meetings in his rooms at Christ Church that continued until his death. They were connected to rehearsals of the Christ Church Cathedral choir, where Aldrich sang and was the leading force, but broadened to include informal music performances that reflected his wide range of musical interests. The circle of friends included Christ Church senior members, fellows of other colleges, laymen, and a series of undergraduates, not exclusively confined to Christ Church men. The gatherings were remembered for their conviviality; Aldrich was a renowned drinker and pipe smoker. He was 'a highly competent composer', although the four services that survive in manuscript have been described as 'rather routine in style' (New Grove). Many of his works were recompositions of earlier works by other composers, including Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons, or Palestrina. His work circulated outside Oxford and was included in the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey repertoires by the late 1670s. Aldrich's intention was probably to adapt music from non-English sources for the English cathedral tradition, as well as adapting polyphonic music for contemporary homophonic performance. His interest in what was becoming known as ancient music has been described as a 'kind of musical Toryism' (Weber, 36), in which Aldrich sought to reinforce the place of the church in the state and in society by restoring the Church of England's musical tradition, which had suffered since the civil war.
As subdean Aldrich had increasingly taken over the day-to-day running of Christ Church from the ageing Dean Fell. However, when Fell died in summer 1686 James II did not appoint Aldrich in Fell's place but John Massey, a Catholic fellow of Merton College, Oxford, with no previous connection to Christ Church, who had received royal dispensation from taking the sacrament and the oaths required from a new dean. Aldrich did however succeed Fell on 5 January 1687 as curator of the Sheldonian Theatre. He dutifully installed Massey as dean but then led an unsuccessful attempt to have Massey's appointment ruled illegal, a proceeding quashed by James II. He was the only Christ Church canon actively to oppose James's Catholicizing policies in the university, organizing a group of students of Christ Church to rebut Roman Catholic tracts circulating in Oxford as they were published. He himself took to print with A reply to two discourses lately printed at Oxford concerning the adoration of our blessed saviour in the holy eucharist (1687) to rebut Abraham Woodhead's work which had been published under the auspices of Obadiah Walker, the Catholic master of University College. Aldrich was also active in supporting the fellows of Magdalen College in their refusal to elect another Catholic, Anthony Farmer, as master. Quick action by Aldrich also ensured that in July 1688 the new duke of Ormond was elected as chancellor of the university before James II could nominate the lord chancellor, George Jeffreys, first Baron Jeffreys.
The revolution of 1688 saw the departure of Massey from Christ Church and Aldrich's appointment as dean in April 1689. He was in London from Christmas 1688 and did not return to Oxford until the eve of his installation on 17 June 1689, perhaps acclimatizing to the new political order. As dean of Christ Church and rector of Wem, Shropshire (it has been questioned whether he held this living), Aldrich enjoyed an income of about £1200 per annum. In the politics of the new reign of William III and Mary II, Aldrich was a conservative tory, a clerical lieutenant of Laurence Hyde, first earl of Rochester. On 4 September 1689 Aldrich was named to an ecclesiastical commission charged with revising the liturgy, canons, and discipline of the church so that proposals for comprehension of protestant dissenters could be laid before convocation. Aldrich was one of the few present opposed to comprehension, and he challenged the legal basis of the commission and then walked out when the commission began to discuss what ceremonies might be omitted to meet dissenters' grievances. When convocation met, plans to elect John Tillotson prolocutor of the lower house were defeated when Aldrich proposed William Jane, who was chosen 55 to 28. Aldrich and Jane then dominated proceedings until convocation was adjourned on 13 December 1689.
In the reign of William III, Christ Church was the centre of conservative tory opposition to the new regime. Rochester, and his brother Henry Hyde, second earl of Clarendon, often visited the college and it was in Christ Church that Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion was edited for publication. In 1691 Aldrich published Artis logicae compendium, a small treatise on logic which remained a standard textbook at Oxford into the late nineteenth century. On 4 October 1692 Aldrich was installed as vice-chancellor of the university. He retained the post for three years, during which time he acted to reimpose discipline and in July 1693 revived the institution of the Act as the university's principal ceremonial occasion, ensuring that specially composed music (often by himself) was performed throughout, in addition to works offered for music degrees. His practice of encouraging a young scholar to edit a classical text for distribution as a new year's gift provoked controversy in 1693 when Charles Boyle criticized Dr Richard Bentley of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the preface of his Epistles of Phalaris for denying him proper access to the manuscripts in his possession as librarian of the king's library in St James's Palace. Aldrich stayed out of the printed exchanges that followed. In March 1694 he ensured that Simon Adams was installed as principal of Magdalen, despite the opposition of the fellows. In January 1695 he went up to London with an address of condolence for the king following the death of Mary II, and in May John Evelyn heard him preach against Socinians at Whitehall. In the 1690s he also experimented with music printing, employing a moveable type devised by the university printer, Peter de Walpergen, and also engraved many plates himself; the results survive among his manuscripts at Christ Church.
In 1701, with Rochester back in royal favour and convocation allowed to meet in February, Aldrich was a leading speaker in that assembly. However, Aldrich's toryism was of a more conservative kind than the fiery radicalism of Francis Atterbury. This can be seen in the publication in September 1701 of Aldrich and George Hooper's tract, A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Lower House of Convocation Relating to Prorogations and Adjournments, which was less assertive than Atterbury's The Power of the Lower House of Convocation to Adjourn itself. When convocation met again in December 1701 it was Aldrich who was chosen on 12 February 1702 to replace the ailing prolocutor, Robert Woodward. By the time convocation met for the first time under Queen Anne, Aldrich had become part of Robert Harley's strategy to tame the more extreme elements among the tories. Before his election as prolocutor on 20 October 1702 Aldrich had a private audience with the queen, when he was told that he would be elected prolocutor and should use his influence towards moderation. Thus the efforts of Atterbury to raise the political temperature failed. Many felt that Aldrich would be rewarded for his efforts with the bishopric of Bath and Wells, but, according to Atterbury, Aldrich faced 'such an objection as, being entertained, will equally hinder him in his pretensions to any other bishopric whatsoever' (Epistolary Correspondence, 3.145). William Nicolson, bishop of Carlisle, viewed Aldrich as firmly in the Rochester camp, but it seems that he was less concerned with procedural disputes with the bishops than with the growth of heresies. He even wrote circular letters in 1705 in favour of William Binckes, dean of Lichfield, as his successor as prolocutor, rather than Atterbury.
Throughout his period as dean of Christ Church, Aldrich continued to practise architecture, although little can definitely be attributed to him. He was probably the original architect of All Saints' Church, Oxford, constructed between 1701 and 1710, and was certainly the designer of the Peckwater quadrangle in Christ Church, begun in 1706 but not finished until 1714, after Aldrich's death. He encouraged Charles Brandon Fairfax to translate Palladio's Antichità di Roma into Latin, and on its publication in 1709 Fairfax stated that Aldrich regarded Palladio as his example in architecture, a statement supported by the classicism of the Peckwater quadrangle which entitles 'Aldrich to be regarded as one of the forerunners of the Palladian movement which he did not live to see' (Colvin, Archs.). Aldrich also prepared a history of architecture, written and illustrated by himself, divided into civil and military sections. Only the first and part of the second volume of the civil section were completed; they were eventually published as Elementa architecturae civilis in 1789.
Aldrich was reported to be ill in November 1707, but in October 1708 he was well enough to visit Henry St John (later Viscount Bolingbroke) at St John's Oxfordshire seat. Aldrich died unmarried on 14 December 1710 in London, where he had gone to seek treatment on 8 December from Dr Radcliffe for 'an ulcer in the bladder' (Remarks, 3.90). He was brought back to Oxford on 22 December and buried in Christ Church that day. His will ordered all his personal papers to be burnt, but he left his collections of books (3000), prints (more than 2000 engravings), and musical manuscripts (estimated at more than 8000 compositions, including many pieces of Italian origin) to the college. He specified that no one was to consult the manuscripts without the permission of the dean and chapter, 'because they are things of value in themselves and to be found in very few Libraries' (Wollenberg, 86). The collection was used by Charles Burney and Sir John Hawkins when they researched their histories of music later in the eighteenth century. He gave duplicate copies of his books to his nephew, Charles, the son of his brother, Edward.
STUART HANDLEY
Sources
Foster, Alum. Oxon.
Old Westminsters, 1.10
Remarks and collections of Thomas Hearne, ed. C. E. Doble and others, 11 vols., OHS, 2, 7, 13, 34, 42-3, 48, 50, 65, 67, 72 (1885-1921)
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will, Oxf. UA
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CSP dom., 1682, p. 61
W. M. Marshall, George Hooper, 1640-1727, bishop of Bath and Wells (1976), 79-84
New Grove, online edn, 17 May 2002
Colvin, Archs.
W. Weber, The rise of musical classics in eighteenth-century England (1992)
S. Wollenberg, Music at Oxford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (2001)
Likenesses
G. Kneller, oils, 1696, Christ Church Oxf. [see illus.]
J. Smith, mezzotint, 1696 (after portrait by G. Kneller), BM, NPG
J. Smith, mezzotint, after 1710 (after G. Kneller), BM
marble busts, Christ Church Oxf.
Wealth at death
see will proved by court of chancellor of University of Oxford, 5 Nov 1711, now held by Oxford University Archives
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