What is it about?
Joseph Merlin (1735–1803), ‘Ingenious Mechanick’, and flamboyant showman, is perhaps best remembered for his Museum in Princes Street, London, with its scintillating displays of automata and extraordinary inventions. The new findings reported in this paper are drawn from contemporary primary source materials, (including two sets of legal court case documents) which provide insights into previously unknown aspects of his business dealings and personal life – perhaps most surprising of all being evidence of his marriage in 1783. Sources consulted includes original manuscripts held at The National Archives, UK, the Scone Palace Archives, Parish Registers, Land Tax and Apprenticeship records and numerous contemporary newspaper advertisements and notices.
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Why is it important?
Joseph Merlin's inventive versatiliy has long made him a figure of interest for historians active in a number of different areas including Furniture History, Musical Instrument History and Horology. The findings reported in this paper provide new information and insights about his work and personal life which add to the body of knowledge in the field of eighteenth century history in London.
Perspectives
As an Educational Technologist by training, it affords me much pleasure to be able to use my skills to search historical source databases and locate information via the Internet that in the past would have involved time consuming trips to visit institutional archives in person and laborious searches through paper records . Moreover, I have found that searching the digitised records has resulted in many unexpected findings coming to light, which is an added bonus. Though the majoroty of the findings reported in this paper have been made using digitised resources, in this instance I also received much help from the Scone Palace Archivist in identifying pages from Lord Mansfield's court notebooks relating to the court case brought by Joseph Merlin against one of his former journeymen for alleged breach of his combined harpsichord- pianoforte patent. This enabled me to report information as seen from his Lordship's judical perspective, which added another dimension to the story. I would like to place on record here my appreciation of the Archivist's patient and kind assistance with my quest.
Dr Margaret Debenham
Independent Scholar
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Joseph Merlin in London, 1760–1803: the Man behind the Mask. New Documentary Sources, Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, January 2014, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1080/14723808.2014.888175.
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