Of the previous history of Thomas Dallam we know little. From the tombstone of his son in New College, Oxford, we gather that he came from the village of Dallam, in Lancashire, not far from Warrington. From the papers of the Blacksmiths’ Company we learn that he came up to London, and was apprenticed to that Company, and admitted as a liveryman of the same. In those days the Blacksmiths’ Company had supervision over many Companies, including the organ-builders, and in this branch of the craft Thomas Dallam was employed. From Dr. Rimbault we learn many details concerning this celebrated family of organ-builders and the instruments they constructed. Of this particular one, which Dallam made, and which was set up in Whitehall for Queen Elizabeth’s approval prior to its being shipped off to Constantinople, there appears to be no other record; but, immediately on his return from the East, Thomas Dallam seems to have worked hard at his trade, and he and his sons constructed most of the principal organs of the seventeenth century. In 1605-6 Dallam was engaged for fifty-eight weeks in constructing the organ of King’s College, Cambridge, for which purpose he closed his workshop in London, and for this work he received the sum of £371 17_s._ 1_d._ This organ was destroyed in the civil wars, but the case still remains. In 1607 he got £1 15_s._ for tuning the same organ, and a like sum for the sale of surplus tin, and his name frequently occurs in the College records till 1641. In 1613 Dallam made “new double organs” for Worcester Cathedral, and got £211. This organ was likewise destroyed in the rebellion. On 29th of September 1626, Thomas Dallam was made a steward of the annual feast of the Blacksmiths’ Company, but did not put in an appearance, and was fined £10 for neglect of duty. In the following year he petitioned in court to be let off his stewardship, and his petition was granted him on payment of certain small fines. Almost immediately after his return from Constantinople Thomas Dallam must have married, for his eldest son, Robert, was born in 1602, and was brought up by his father in the organ-building trade under the auspices of the Blacksmiths’ Company. Together, between 1624 and 1627, they put up an organ in Durham Cathedral, which was eventually sold to the Church of St. Michael-le-Belfry, York, where it remained till 1885, and was finally disposed of to Mr. Bell, organ-builder, York, for the sum of four pounds. Robert Dallam also built an organ for Jesus College, Cambridge, for £200, and several others. Finally, we hear of him as engaged to build an organ for New College, Oxford; and he died at Oxford, May 31st, 1665, and, from his tomb in that College we learn certain particulars about the family, the concluding lines of which would seem rather to refer to his father than himself, for we have no record of his having travelled in distant lands. It runs as follows:—