Henry and John Lawes

Henry Lawes, the distinguished musician and songwriter, was buried somewhere in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey on 25th October 1662. His brother John, a lay vicar of the Abbey, was buried on 19th January 1655.

Henry Lawes

Henry was born in Wiltshire and baptised on 5th January 1596, a son of Thomas Lawes, musician, and his wife Lucretia (Shepherd). While his father was a lay vicar at Salisbury cathedral he was probably educated in the choir school there. His brothers were William, who became a leading musician, Thomas, who was a lay vicar at Salisbury, and John and his sister was Elizabeth. Henry became a music master in the Earl of Bridgewater's family and then a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He wrote songs for plays performed before the king and queen and was a friend of Milton, whose poems he set to music. In 1638 his first work of psalm settings was published. He appears to have had three wives, Elizabeth Dally, Elizabeth Miles and Eleanor but left no surviving children. He was a member of the King's band but during the Commonwealth period he taught singing. At the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 he resumed his court positions. He died on 21st October 1662 at his house in the Little Almonry, Westminster.

John Lawes

John was a lay vicar at the Abbey from 1627 and he is probably the John Lawes who married Mary Remnant at St Margaret's Westminster on 10th December that year. His son Henry (b.1628) was buried in the cloisters on 18th August 1629. His daughter Margaret (b.1630) married Mr Crispe and had several children. Two other children, Henry and William, were baptised at St Margaret's in 1631 and 1634. A document in the Abbey archives giving the whereabouts of officials of the Abbey in the early 1640s shows he took the Covenant during the Commonwealth period. It seems brother William was also a lay vicar of the Abbey as he is listed in the same document as "being in arms against ye Parliament" and he died at the siege of Chester in September 1645.

Further reading for Henry and William

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Henry Lawes

"Henry Lawes. Cavalier songwriter" by Ian Spink, 2000

Henry Lawes will is at The National Archives, Kew, Surrey