Maria Hackett - the choristers' friend

Maria Hackett - the choristers' friend

At the start of the 19th century, music in English cathedrals was in a sorry state. Organists were desperately underpaid, adult choristers unruly and lazy, the welfare and training of boy choristers often seriously neglected. Most clergy thought any kind of elaborate music in cathedrals was inappropriate.

St Paul's in the early 19th century, by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd©

St Paul's Cathedral in London was a typical case in point, but here an ordinary member of the congregation - the pocket battleship of a spinster, Maria Hackett - determined that something should be done. Over many years she kept up a fusillade of complaints to cathedral clergy.

Her particular concerns were the lack of a rounded education, the dangers young choristers faced while walking to practices and services alone through the London streets, and the shortcomings of their musical training.

Her exhaustive research showed that the cathedral authorities had siphoned off money from ancient foundations which should have been used for the benefit of the choir. Over many years, in letter after letter to successive bishops, deans and canons, she made her case forcefully and even at times rudely. They responded largely with indifference.

Maria Hackett felt choirboys were at risk

It took four years, but at last the cathedral appointed a Mr Hawes as almoner (person in charge of alms, charitable donations) and the choristers were put into his care. (Of Choristers)

As Maria Hackett developed her arguments, her gaze turned to cathedrals around the country.

At first she wrote to their clergy with searching questions about their provision for the welfare of choristers... but increasingly she travelled to see for herself, writing up her findings for private circulation and even for - ironically, given the male chauvinism she met - The Gentlemen's Magazine.

In 1827 she published a book called Brief Account of Cathedral and Collegiate Schools, distributing it to clergy and achieving some of the reforms she sought. She kept up her cathedral visits until the year she died, 1876. (Of Choristers)