Letters to Charles Tilston Beke from Charles Henry Purday

There are twenty original letters to Dr Beke from Purday, mostly concerning the Abyssinian captives and Palgrave, Rassam and Layard (see Eng MS 888 above), and an original letter to Mrs E. Beke from Captain Charles Duncan Cameron, HM Consul in Abyssinia, one of the captives, written from Magdala Prison, 10 December 1866.

Charles Henry Purday (1799-1885), musician and publisher, was appointed conductor of psalmody at Crown Court Scots Church in Covent Garden, London, in the 1840s, during the ministry of Dr John Cumming. Purday was a fine vocalist and had sung at the coronation of Queen Victoria. He became a music publisher, and was a pioneer in the movement for copyright law reform. His works include: The sacred musical offering (1833), Crown court psalmody: one hundred psalm tunes and chants (1854), A few directions for chanting (1855), A church and home tune book (1857), and Copyright, a sketch of its rise and progress (1877).

Former owner: W.A. Copinger.