Hollister, William Castles

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Dates Active in Dublin: 

1751–1802

Business Type: 
Musical instrument maker: harpsichord
Musical instrument maker: organ
Musical instrument maker: spinet
Address(es): 

York Street, 1759–64
Parliament Street, 1764–73
Ranelagh, [1766?] 1774–78
40 Cuffe Street, 1779–89
11 Linen Hall Street, c. 1789–93
10 South Anne Street, 1794–1802

Details: 

Son of Philip Hollister.

Listed in the Dublin Directories as 'harpsichord maker'.

In 1751 'Messrs. Hollister and Son' built a new organ for the French chapel in St Patrick's Cathedral, indicating that Philip had taken William Castles into partnership at this date. He succeeded his father Philip in his appointment to maintain the organs in St Patrick's Cathedral in 1760.

Also active as an impresario, most notably at Ranelagh Gardens, which he opened in 1768 (Boydell, 'Music, 1700–1850').

Select Product/Work List: 

Built

  • Horizontal organ (made for Dean George Chinnery, Cork), 1748 or 1760 (Boydell, Card Index)
  • Organ: St Patrick's Cathedral, French Chapel, 1751 (Grindle)
  • Organ: Cloyne Cathedral organ [additions], 1750, 1754, 1766 (Grindle)
  • 'Box and Bird organs, now so much esteemed in England', 1759 (Dublin Journal)
  • Upright organ (made for Dean George Chinnery, Cork), 1762 (Boydell, Card Index)

    • Installed

  • Organ: Ranelagh Gardens, after 1768 (Flood, 'Organ-Builders')
  • Organ: Trinity College Chapel, 1798 [imported Green organ] (Boydell, 'St Michan's)

    • Tuned and Maintained

  • Organ: St Patrick's Cathedral, c. 1760–? (Grindle)
  • Organ: Christ Church Cathedral (Grindle)
  • Organ: St Michan's Church, 1760–70 and 1788–90 (Boydell, 'St Michan's')
  • Organ: Trinity College Chapel, 1787–97 (Boydell, 'The Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin')
    • See Also: 

    Green, Samuel
    Hollister, Philip
    Hollister and Son, Messrs.

    Source(s): 

    Dublin Journal, 12–15 May 1759, p. 4

    Dublin Directories

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Dublin Harpsichord and Pianoforte Makers of the Eighteenth Century', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 39.2 (1909), 137–45 (p. 141–43)

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Irish Organ-Builders from the Eighth to the Close of the Eighteenth Century', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 40.3 (30 September 1910), 229–34 (p. 233)

    Teahan, John, 'A List of Irish Instrument Makers', The Galpin Society Journal, 16 (May 1963), 28–32 (p. 29)

    Doyle, Paul, ‘18th Century Musical Instruments in the National Museum Dublin, with notes on an English Guitar 1764 by Gibson of Dublin’, FOMRHI Quarterly, 13 (October 1978), 21-24 (p. 21)

    Boydell, Brian, 'Hollister', in The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed. by Stanley Sadie, 3 vols (London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1984), II, p. 228

    Boydell, Brian, 'Music, 1700–1850', in Eighteenth-Century Ireland 1691–1800, ed. by T.W. Moody and W.E. Vaughan, A New History of Ireland, IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 568–627 (p. 583)

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), pp. 250, 256, 260

    Grindle, W.H., Irish Cathedral Music: a History of Music at the Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1989), pp. 134, 143

    Boydell, Barra, 'John Baptiste Cuvillie, Ferdinand Weber, and the Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin', The Organ, 72.283 (1992), 15–27 (pp. 23–24)

    Boydell, Barra, 'St Michan's Church, Dublin: the Installation of the Organ in 1725 and the Duties of the Organist', Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 19 (1995), 74–96 (pp. 89–90)

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Hollister, Frederick’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Hollister, Philip’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Hollister, William (1)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Hollister, William (2)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 17-02-2017