John Langshaw

The mahogany case is almost certainly by Gillows, while the barrels are inscribed "John Langshaw / Organ Maker / Lancaster".

Langshaw Jr. assisted his father as an organ-builder,[2] but was more active as an organist and teacher, as well as an agent for the piano manufacturer Broadwood.

He suffered a childhood accident that left him lame, and at the age of seventeen on 2 October 1742 he petitioned the court leet for a paid post in the Wigan Waits.

[11] John wished to return to the country for the benefit of his health and was appointed organist at Wigan Parish Church in 1770.

[c] John used all his carefully cultivated London connections to secure a place for Jack as pupil to Dr Benjamin Cooke .

The nature of the arrangement between composer and clock-maker is not known, but it is assumed to have been a commercial collaboration, as there was a market for musical automata at the time.

Smith, who is best known as the blind composer's amanuensis, collaborated with John Langshaw in transcribing a selection of Handel's works for chamber barrel organ.

It is surmised that Langshaw's pinning of Handel's music reflects the actual way the composer played, thus making the barrels subjects of academic study.

As the composer (a noted organist) tended to "ad lib" in this repertoire,[19] there is scope for using barrel organs to reconstruct the original ornamentation, something which is not preserved in the printed versions.

For example, the organist Richard Egarr, in his recording of the opus 4 set used ornaments preserved on a barrel organ in the Colt collection.

[22][23] The Langshaws, father and son, built a pipe organ at St John's Church, Lancaster.

The instrument, which was dedicated in 1785, has undergone a Victorian rebuild, but retains its original Gillow case made of mahogany in Adam style.

The instrument, on which the architect Robert Adam, the watch-maker Christopher Pinchbeck and the organ-builder John Snetzler also collaborated, was installed at his country residence, Luton Hoo (where it was destroyed in a fire in the nineteenth century).

[26] It is not clear whether this is the same as the undated instrument by Cumming and Snetzler at Lowther Castle, Cumbria, which is documented on the National Pipe Organ Register as having seven barrels.