(b Deerfield, NH, 5 July 1789; d Concord, NH, 6 May 1858). American maker of bowed string and keyboard instruments. He learnt cabinet making from his uncle, and made his first instrument, a ‘bass viol’ or ‘church bass’ (in fact a large cello; see Bass viol), in 1809 in Deerfield. The instrument, bought by a local musician for use in church services, was the first of several hundred made and sold by Prescott by the 1840s. He played the ‘bass viol’ (again, probably the cello) while attending Atkinson Academy, served as fife major in the 1812 war and later gave occasional singing lessons. He used his commercial acumen and his musical and religious associations (he was a deacon of the Baptist Church) to build a thriving music business. His apprentices included David and Andrew Dearborn.
In 1831 Prescott opened a music store in Concord, New Hampshire; by 1833 he had moved the whole of his business there for better trade and shipping connections with Boston. In 1836 he pioneered the manufacture of small reed organs (known as ‘lap organs’ or ‘rocking melodeons’; see Reed organ, §1). In 1845 the Prescott firm, now Abraham Prescott & Son (his son was Abraham J. Prescott) turned its attention to seraphines, melodeons and reed organs for church, school and home use. The Dearborn brothers took over from Prescott’s the manufacture of string instruments in about 1848, and after Prescott retired in 1850, the firm’s constitution underwent several changes. From 1850 to 1852 it was known as Prescott & Brothers (in the hands of Prescott’s sons: Abraham J., Joseph W. and Josiah B.); from 1852 to 1870 Prescott Brothers (after 1858 under Abraham J. & George D.B. Prescott); from 1871 to 1886 the Prescott Organ Co.; from 1887 to 1891 the Prescott Piano & Organ Co.; and from 1891 to 1912 the Prescott Piano Co. (which continued as piano dealers until 1917).
Prescott’s instruments were well made. What he described as ‘bass viols’ in his Deerfield business ledgers were no doubt the large cellos (typical dimensions: length 82 cm, lower bout 51 cm, upper bout 40 cm, neck 25 cm) used in churches and now found in private collections and those of the Smithsonian Institution and at Yale University. Most Prescott basses are fitted with machine-head tuning devices in place of pegs. His double basses are used today by leading orchestral and jazz players. Examples of his lap organs and larger reed organs can be found at the Smithsonian Institution and the New Hampshire Historical Society, where his business ledgers are also held.
W. Prescott: The Prescott Memorial (Boston, 1870)
Over 100 Years of Musical Progress 1809–1910 (Concord, NH, 1910) [Prescott Piano Company pubn]
W. Henley: Universal Dictionary of Violin and Bow Makers, iv (Brighton, 1960)
S.R. Ogden: Abraham Prescott and his Bass Viols (MS, 1966, US–CDhs)
B.D. Turcott: ‘Concord Instrument Makers’, Historical New Hampshire, xxii/1 (1967), 18–27
CYNTHIA ADAMS HOOVER/R