Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mulliner, Thomas

1341003Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 39 — Mulliner, Thomas1894Louisa M. Middleton

MULLINER, THOMAS (fl. 1550?), musician, was before 1559, according to a manuscript note in Stafford Smith's handwriting, ' master of St. Paul's school,' that is, of the school for the choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1559 Sebastian Westcott was appointed to the post. If Stafford Smith's note, which is the only evidence of Mulliner's connection with the cathedral, be correct, Mulliner was the master of Tallis and Sheppard, and deserves the credit of maintaining the St. Paul's music-school at a high level of excellence, if not of having raised it to celebrity.

Mulliner made a valuable collection of pieces for the virginals, which is now preserved in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 30513. The volume bears an inscription, 'Sum liber Thomas Mullineri, Johanne Heywoode teste.' (Heywood was much employed as a musician about the court.) Most of the music in this collection is written for the virginals, in the hand, it is supposed, of Mulliner; while certain numbers, 'galliardes,' are signed T. M. The manuscript was probably written during the reign of Mary or early in that of Elizabeth; it has been judged by other authorities to belong to Henry VIII's time.

One Thomas Mulliner was scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in and before 1564, and 'organorum modulator 'on 3 March 1563-4. The name of Mulliner, or Mullyner, was known in the 16th century in Suffolk (Cal. Chanc. Proc. ii. 398), Northamptonshire (P. C. C. Registers of wills, Dixy, 29), and Oxfordshire (Registers of wills).

[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Sparrow Simpson's Gleanings from Old St. Paul's, p. 195; Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 30513; and authorities quoted.]