Thomas Weelkes

Thomas Welcks (baptized October 25, 1576 - November 30, 1623) was an English composer and organist. He became an organist at Winchester College in 1598, moving to Chichester Cathedral. His work is mostly vocal, and includes madrigals, hymns and services. Wells was baptized in the small village church of Elstead near Chichester in West Sussex on October 25, 1576. It has been suggested that his father was John Wick, Rector of Elstead, although there is no documentary evidence of this relationship. In 1597, his first volume of madrigals was published, in the preface to which it was written that he was a very young man; this helps to fix the date of his birth somewhere in the mid-1570s. At the beginning of his life, he served in the court house of Edward Darcy. At the end of 1598, probably at the age of 22, Welks was appointed organist at Winchester College, where he stayed for two or three years, receiving a quarterly salary of 13s 4d (£ 2 for three quarters). His rewards included food and accommodation. During his Winchester period, Velkes wrote two more volumes of the madrigals (1598, 1600). He got his B. Mus. In 1602, he received his degree at New College, Oxford, and moved to Chichester, where he held the position of organist and choristrum informant (chorus instructor) in Chichester Cathedral between October 1601 and October 1602. He was also assigned a lay clerk to the cathedral, earning £ 15 4 times a year along with his board, housing and other amenities. The following year, he married Elizabeth Sandham from a wealthy local family. They had three children, and it was rumored that Elizabeth was already pregnant during the marriage.