(b ?London, c1672; d London, c1732). English music printer, publisher and instrument maker. The researches of Dawe, together with those of Ashbee, have helped clarify the identification of members of this family. Young's father was also John, but since he was still alive in 1693, he was evidently not, as earlier surmised, the John Young who was appointed musician-in-ordinary to the king as a viol player on 23 May 1673 and who had died by 1680 (according to the Lord Chamberlain's records). Young junior was apprenticed to the music seller and publisher John Clarke, and was established on his own by 1695. His publications included A Choice Collection of Ayres for the Harpsichord or Spinett by Blow and others (1700), William Gorton's A Choice Collection of New Ayres, Compos'd and Contriv'd for Two Bass-Viols (1701), The Flute-Master Compleat Improv'd (1706), the fifth and sixth editions of Christopher Simpson's Compendium (1714) and other works. Some were issued in conjunction with other publishers, including Henry Playford, Thomas Cross, John Cullen, John Walsh and John Hare, so that such works as Jeremiah Clarke's Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinett (1711), and editions of The Dancing Master, Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy and Purcell's Orpheus britannicus include his imprint. A number of interesting works known to have been published by Young are now lost, including John Banister's The Compleat Tutor to the Violin (1699), Philip Hart's A Choice Set of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet (1702) and Alex Roathwell's The Compleat Instructor to the Flute (1699). Young also had a high reputation as a violin maker. His violin-playing sons, John (b London, 23 Aug 1694) and Talbot (b London, 25 June 1699; d London, bur. 24 Feb 1758), both joined the business. John in turn had a son, yet another John Young (b London, 1 March 1718; d London, 30 April 1767), who was a violinist and organist. Talbot Young became the best-known violinist of the family and was a member of the King's Music from 1717. With his father, Maurice Greene and others, he established a series of weekly music meetings from about 1715. Held initially at the Youngs' premises, they eventually moved to nearby taverns, and from the mid-1720s became known as the Castle Society concerts. Talbot was also organist of All Saints, Bread Street (1729–58), and a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1719. About 1741 the Youngs' business passed into the hands of Peter Thompson, who had probably had an association with the firm since about 1731.
AshbeeR, i, v
BDA (‘Young, Talbot’)
Day-MurrieESB
EitnerQ
HawkinsH
Humphries-SmithMP
KidsonBMP
J. Pulver: A Biographical Dictionary of Old English Music (London, 1927/R)
M. Tilmouth: A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719), RMARC, no.1 (1961, repr. 1968)
P.M. Young: The Concert Tradition from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (London, 1965)
D. Dawe: Organists of the City of London, 1666–1850 (Padstow, 1983)
PETER WARD JONES