Solomon Eccles

Solomon Eccles (1618–1683), also known as Solomon Eagle, was an English composer.

Life

Solomon Eagle was mentioned in Daniel Defoe's semi-fictional account of the plague of 1665 titled A Journal of the Plague Year. Defoe wrote:

'I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast. He, though not infected at all but in his head, went about denouncing of judgment upon the city in a frightful manner, sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head. What he said, or pretended, indeed I could not learn.'

Eccles was a Quaker, a man prosecuted numerous times during the Restoration for civil disobedience. He would worship with other Quakers. The law that was passed in the early 1660s said that, if more than three people got together in a room for religious worship, this was a seditious, wicked activity. In May 1665, Eccles was arrested in Southwark, even though he probably lived in the middle of the City of London, and was put away in prison – probably in the Clink on the South Bank – for about two to three months.

Works

Few if any of his works are extant since, when he became a Quaker, he burned all his books and compositions so as to distance himself from church music. His repugnance for the organised church showed in his name for them: "steeple-houses".

Family

Eccles had at least two musical grandchildren, John and Henry. (The Wikipedia pages for both John Eccles and Henry Eccles refer to Solomon as their father, rather than grandfather. Their birth dates, however, suggest that the attribution on this page is correct.)

References

• Claus Bernet (2002). "Solomon Eccles". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 20. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 424–427. ISBN 3-88309-091-3.