(b Canterbury, bap. 30 Jan 1696; d Canterbury, 9 March 1777). English cathedral singer and antiquarian, son of John Gostling. He was educated at King’s School, Canterbury, and St John’s College, Cambridge (MA, 1719). He was a minor canon of Canterbury, 1727–77, and held livings in Kent at Brook (1722–33), Littlebourne (1733–53) and Stone-in-Oxney (1753–77). He and the Canterbury organist William Raylton were principal organizers of the Canterbury Concerts, and in this connection he was associated with William, 3rd Lord Cowper, with whom he corresponded. Gostling had strong antiquarian interests, and his well-known A Walk in and around the City of Canterbury, first issued in 1774, went through five subsequent editions. He acquired, partly from his father, a fine collection of manuscript and printed music consisting of some 1500 items; it includes a first edition of Parthenia; the contratenor and tenor parts of John Day’s Mornyng and Evenyng Prayer (1565); an album in the hand of William Lawes (now GB-Lbl Add.31432); the compendious pre-Civil War organbook of English cathedral music that is now GB-Ob Tenbury 791; the so-called Gostling Manuscript (now in US-AUS; facs. (Austin and London, 1977)) and its companion (US-Cn); 1045–51 and GB-Lcm. From his collection he helped William Boyce in the compilation of his Cathedral Music and John Hawkins in his History. Items from his music library, which was sold in 1777 (only his non-music books were sold by the Canterbury musician and bookseller William Flackton), may in some instances be identified by his signature or engraved bookplate (see Ford).
A.H. King: Some British Collectors of Music c.1600–1960 (Cambridge, 1963)
R. Ford: Minor Canons at Canterbury Cathedral: the Gostlings and their Colleagues (diss., U. of California, Berkeley, 1984)
I. Spink: Restoration Cathedral Music 1660–1714 (Oxford, 1995)
WATKINS SHAW/ROBERT FORD