[1739?] 1749–1784
Werburgh Street, 1739–49
Marlborough Street, 1749–55
71 Marlborough Street, 1776–84
Also known as Ferdinand Webber.
Born in Saxony.
Weber succeeded Peter Gunan as organ tuner and repairer of the Trinity College Chapel organ from 1759 until his death in 1784 (Boydell, 'The Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin').
In the Dublin Directories (1762–84) Weber is listed as a 'harpsichord maker'.
His account books (edited by W.H. Grattan Flood) list repairs, new instruments, etc. supplied to a wide variety of clients; they also indicate that a new harpsichord cost from £22-15-0 to £34-2-6 in 1773 and a new Forte Piano cost £14-15-9 in 1775.
Apprentices: John Christian Wagner? ['for several Years transacted Business for his Uncle Mr. Ferdinand Webber' (Dublin Journal)] and Robert Woffington? (Boydell, Card Index)
Succeeded in business by his widow Rachel and son Thomas Ferdinand in 1784.
[Details differ according to sources: the Dublin Directories give 'Marlborough St' from 1749 to 1775 and 71 Marlborough Street from 1776 to 1784. Boydell (Calendar) gives 71 Marlborough Street address from 1749 to 1784. Flood gives the Werburgh Street address from 1739 to 1783 but this has not been substantiated. Otherwise Boydell ('The Organ of Trinity College Chapel, Dublin') states that a payment on 23 June 1749 for repairs to the organ of Trinity College chapel is the earliest recorded evidence for Weber's work in Dublin. The Dublin Builder states that Weber resided in Dublin during the 'commencement of the present [nineteenth] century'. Note: Grindle states that Weber maintained the organ of St Fin Barre's after 1739 but Caulfield states he carried out the work from 1763 to 1772.]
Built
Maintained and Repaired
Added Stops/Bellows
Tuned
Dublin Directories
Dublin Journal, 5–9 November 1765, p. 4
Dublin Builder, 1 April 1860, p. 233
Caulfield, Richard, Annals of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork (Cork: Purcell & Company, 1871), pp. 76, 78–79
Teahan, John, 'A List of Irish Instrument Makers', The Galpin Society Journal, 16 (May 1963), 28–32 (p. 32)
Hogan, Ita Margaret, Anglo-Irish Music 1780–1830 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1966), p. 107
De Valera, Terry, 'Sarah Curran's Musical Interests', Dublin Historical Record, 38.1 (1984), 14–21 (p. 15)
Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), pp. 130, 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. 53, 143, 154, 157
Boydell, Brian, ‘Hammond’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>
Last Update: 17-02-2017