A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Immyns, John
IMMYNS, John, by profession an attorney, was an active member of the Academy of Ancient Music. Having in his younger days been guilty of some indiscretion which proved a bar to success in his profession, he was reduced to become clerk to a city attorney, copyist to the Academy, and amanuensis to Dr. Pepusch. He possessed a strong alto voice and played indifferently on the flute, violin, viol da gamba and harpsichord. At the age of 40, by the sole aid of Mace's 'Musick's Monument,' he learned to play upon the lute. In 1741 he established the Madrigal Society [see Madrigal Society.] In 1752, upon the death of John Shore, he was appointed lutenist of the Chapel Royal. He was a diligent collector and assiduous student of the works of the madrigal writers and other early composers, but had no taste whatever for the music of his own time. He died of an asthma at his residence in Cold Bath Fields, April 15, 1764.
His son John made music his profession, became a violoncellist and organist, and was organist of Surrey Chapel at the time of his death in 1794.[ W. H. H. ]