Richard Allott junior (1782/3–1858) was an Anglo-Irish cleric and academic, known as a librarian and a musician at Armagh Cathedral, where he earned the nickname "Fiddling Dick", and as a music collector.[1]
Richard Allott senior (1744/5–1832), his father, was the third son of Brian Allott (1693–1773), Rector of Kirkheaton;[2][3] he was an Anglican priest in Ireland during the later 18th and early 19th centuries.[4] Towards the end of his life he was in Switzerland, and he died at Beau-Rivage, Lausanne, aged 87.[3][5]
Allott was educated Beverley Grammar School. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1762, graduating B.A. there in 1766, and M.A. in 1769. He took degrees of B.D. (1776) and D.D. (1783) at Trinity College, Dublin.[3][6] He was Dean of Raphoe from 1795[7] until his death in 1832.[8]
Ordained deacon in 1767, Allott became rector of Annaduff in Ireland. From 1771 to 1774 he was a prebendary of St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam. From 1774 he was precentor in Armagh Cathedral, as his son more prominently would be, and a prebendary there.[3][5] The position was taken over in 1802 by John Cleland (1755–1834).[9]
Allott married an Irish wife, Anna Maria Weller.[2] Their youngest daughter, Jane, was a watercolour artist.[10] Allott preached the fast sermon to the House of Commons on 26 February 1806.[11] It contained a suggestion that God was using Napoleon as a scourge for sinful Britain.[12]
In 1817 Allott was living in Orchard Street, near Portman Square in London.[13] He confirmed the 1822 baptism, according to Church of Ireland rites, of Charles William George Bury, future 3rd Earl of Charleville (1822–1859), in Geneva.[14] A guidebook of 1829 mentions an 1823 monument at Lausanne, by the sculptor Gibson of Rome, to "Anna Maria Allott, nata Waller".[15]
In 1828 Allott bought from François Bonjour, a Parisian, a substantial property at Ouchy on Lake Geneva, comprising two houses and land.[16] He gained a residence permit for Ouchy in March 1831, and one of his daughters died soon afterwards; he had an application for a monument accepted.[16] His wife and a daughter were buried in the Pierre de Plan cemetery at Ouchy, where he erected a memorial to them.[17]
Allott's daughter Anna Maria died at Lausanne in 1852.[18] Louisa Beaufort, a cousin, was one of her executors; also a beneficiary, with Richard Allott junior.[19]
The Société immobilière d'Ouchy was founded in 1857 to build the Beau-Rivage Hotel on the former Allott property to the east of village of Ouchy, keeping the name it had been given.[20]
Allott junior was educated at Harrow School, and admitted as a pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1801. He graduated B.A. in 1805, M.A. in 1808, and became a Fellow there in 1807.[21] He succeeded William Lodge DD (1742–1813) at the Armagh Library founded by Primate Richard Robinson, taking up the position on 3 September 1814.[22][23] In 1815 he prepared the first significant catalogue of the library's manuscripts, nearly 5,000 in number.[24]
In 1825 Allott, with Thomas Romney Robinson, was brought onto the committee attempting to set up a Mechanics' Institute in Armagh. The main proponent responsible for involving Anglican clerics in the venture was George Ensor, Allott being considered influential with them. Over the next year or two, clerical support was withdrawn, and the Institute failed.[25]
In 1830 Allott was elected a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, replacing John Henry Renouard who had died.[26][27] In 1834, on the death of John Cleland, he took over as precentor of Armagh Cathedral, and Rector of Killeavy, giving up at this point his post as librarian.[9][28] He held these positions to the end of his life.[21] In his capacity as a Senior Fellow of Trinity, he attended a dinner in Cambridge for the incognito Frederick Augustus II of Saxony in 1844.[29]
Allott died at Armagh in 1858.[30] He was buried in the south aisle of Armagh Cathedral, where a window was dedicated to his memory. He had been the senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1853.[31] At the time in 1860 when the donations for the window were being collected, the Newry Telegraph commented adversely, saying that from Allott's large estate nothing was left to Irish charitable causes.[32] The window was installed in 1862; the lower part refers to the story of Saul and David in 1 Samuel 16.[33]
Leslie's Armagh Clergy and Parishes described Allott as "a most accomplished musician as well as scholar".[28] On 17 December 1824 he directed a concert in the Music Hall, Vicar's Hill, Armagh with a programme of music by Emanuele d'Astorga, Corelli, Gluck, Handel, Benedetto Marcello, Mozart, Marcantonio Negri and Pergolesi, given to a distinguished audience.[35] Edward Rogers wrote in 1881 of the music of the Armagh Cathedral Choir and its Music Hall:
For the convenience of the Rev. R. Allott, who always "played first fiddle", and made the programme of performance for the weekly concerts, much of the music was kept at his house.[36]
Allott was the dedicatee of the two volumes of The Beauties of Purcell edited by John Clarke Whitfield.[37] He, or his father, owned a first edition of Francesco Geminiani's Sonatas Op. 4, now a rare work.[38] He is tentatively identified as the purchaser in Piacenza in 1821 of north Italian counterpoint manuscripts, now in the British Library.[39] He was one of the early subscribers to the Bach Gesellschaft set up in 1850.[40]
Allott's musical library was announced as for sale on 26 July 1858, by Puttick & Simpson, in particular including editions of Handel.[41] Murphy and Smaczny, however, write "It must also be noted that a large portion of the early nineteenth-century cathedral music was mistakenly sold with the possessions of Richard Allott [...]".[42]
The musical library was sold on 2 August 1858, by Puttick;[43] and the rest of Allott's library on 29 November by Leigh Sotheby.[44]