From 1767 to 1775 Sale was a chorister of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and of Eton College, and of both was lay vicar from 1777 to 1796.
[1] In 1800 he succeeded Richard Bellamy as Almoner of St Paul's and Master of the Choristers, which posts he held until 1812.
[1] The obituary in The Quarterly Musical Magazine & Review commented that "... very few of his contemporaries possessed so sound a judgment in musical compositions, especially vocal, or manifested on all occasions so much taste and discrimination.... As a vocal performer, Mr. Sale was eminently distinguished; united to a rich, full and mellow bass voice, his taste was of the good old English school, strictly pure and carefully adapted to the subject...."[2] His obituary in The Harmonicon noted: "His aid was generally required in those charming glee parties which were formerly so much the fashion, where his smooth, agreeable voice, and subdued manner of using it, rendered him a valuable assistant.
[1] A granddaughter, Lydia Sophia Sale (died 1869) was also a composer and assistant organist at St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
[4][5][6] Sale published, about 1800, A Collection of New Glees, including six original numbers for three and four voices: "My Phillida, adieu", "Thyrsis, the music of that murmuring spring", "With an honest old friend", "No glory I covet", "With my jug of brown ale" and "Sometimes a happy rustic swain".