Dallam, Thomas; Covel, John; Bent, James Theodore [Editor]: Early voyages and travels in the Levant: with some account of the Levant Company of Turkey Merchants (London, 1893)

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INTRODUCTION.

The Levant merchants apparently thought it would
imperil their own safety and their factories in
Constantinople if Sir E. Barton's papers were not
made out by the Queen, and if the present did not
come from her Majesty herself. Hence, out of com-
pliance with their wishes, Sir E. Barton, though
the Company's nominee, was accredited as ambas-
sador from Queen Elizabeth, and the present, which
the Levant merchants no doubt paid for, purported
to be from,the Queen of England to the Sultan.

In the State Papers, January 31st, 1599, just a
month before Dallam set out on his voyage, the
following entry is made: "A great and curious
present is going to the Grand Turk, which will
scandalise other nations, especially the Germans."
This great and curious present was the organ which
Dallam had built, and which he was about to take
out in person.

Of the previous history of Thomas Dallam we
know little. From the tombstone of his son in New-
College, Oxford, we gather that he came from the
village of Dallam, in Lancashire, not far from
Warrington. From the papers of the Blacksmiths'
Company we learn that he came up to London, and
was apprenticed to that Company, and admitted
as a liveryman of the same. In those days the
Blacksmiths' Company had supervision over many
Companies, including the organ-builders, and in this
branch of the craft Thomas Dallam was employed.

From Dr. Rimbault we learn many details con-
cerning this celebrated family of organ-builders and