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Chelys 7 (1977), article 2
Thorndon for the Petres’ private chapel. 36 By 1608 Byrd was 65 and beset by
the lawsuits which clouded his later years 37 a natural enough
moment to hand over day-to-day responsibility for music at Thorndon to a
younger man. His last recorded douceur—’To Mr. Birde for his riflings for song
books l0s.’—occurs in William Petre’s accounts in June 1608, 38 the same
month as the first wages paid to Richard Mico. We do not know if Mico
was Byrd’s nominee, but he could hardly have been appointed without
Byrd’s goodwill. On stylistic grounds
it seems less likely that he had actually been Byrd’s pupil; but in
his early years in Essex Mico must have come to some extent under
Byrd’s influence, through meeting him in the house and living with so much of
his music.
Mico was evidently already regarded as a promising young musician. His
starting wages—~10 a year and a 10 shilling bonus at Christmas, plus board
and lodging—were as high as those paid to any of the senior Petre household
staff (including the tutor William Smith, who shortly afterwards rose to be
Warden of Wadham College Oxford) and double the average wage attributed
by Woodflll to house musicians at the time. 39 Direct evidence for Richard
Mico’s musical activities at Thorndon is scanty, owing to the fragmentary state
of the records, particularly after 1613. Chapel music must have been one
regular duty, in so devout a Catholic household. There is evidence for the
celebration of mass, and for a resident chaplain, 40 anyway at times; perhaps we
may picture Byrd’s masses being performed under Mico’s direction and in the
ageing composer’s presence (mass books and music would naturally not appear
in inventories, as a precaution against the penal laws). Another duty evidently
was teaching his patron’s children. The accounts for November 1611 include
expenditure ‘for a pair of virginales bought by Ri. Mico for Mall Petre’—Mary,
William Petre’s second daughter, then aged 11. 41 Shortly before Christmas the
same year we find Mico escorting Mall Petre and her little sister Kate (4) to the
nearby market town of Romford, a charge suggesting that the Petre family were
already coming to regard him [31] as a trusted retainer. The Petre accounts for
the second decade of the century, when William Petre’s elder children were
growing up, reveal an active social life—visits from relatives, neighbours and
suitors, entertainments for the tenants during the twelve days of Christmas,
36 Text of dedication in O. Strunk: Source Readings in Musical History (London, 1952), p. 330;
for the chapel, see C. T. Kuypets: Thorndon, its history and associations (Brentwood Diocesan
Magazine, 1930).
37 E. H. Fellowes: William Byrd (London, 2/1948), p. 25-8.
38 ERO, T/A.174, f. 107r.
39 W. L. Woodfill: Musicians in English Society from Elizabeth to Charles I (Princeton, 1953),
p. 68.
40 ERa. D/DP.A.33 (1612); ib., D/DP.A.40 (1623); ib., DIDP.Z.30/13 (1624); Ob, MS. B. Litt.
366, p. 189 (unpublished Oxford thesis. 1976. by N. C. Elliott: The Roman Catholics in Essex,
1625-1701).
41 ERO, D/DP.A.33, under dates named.