Note 12 — The Woodwork, Organ, etc.

Mr. T. F. Bumpas in his London Churches, Ancient and Modern, speaks of him as an organ builder of some note. Renatus Harris he is there styled. "In 1663 the Benchers of the Temple Church being anxious of obtaining the best possible organ, we find him in competition with one Bernard Schmidt, a German, who afterwards became Anglicized as 'Father Smith.' Each builder erected an organ which were played on alternate Sundays. Dr. Blow and Purcell played upon Smith's organ, while Draghi, organist to the Queen Consort, Catherine of Braganza, touched Harrises. The conflict was very severe and bitter. Smith was successful. Harrises organ having been removed, one portion of it was acquired by the parishioners of St. Andrew's, Holborn, while the other was shipped to Dublin, where it remained in Christ Church Cathedral until 1750, when it was purchased for the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton. In 1684 he competed again with Father Smith for the contract for an organ for St. Laurance, Gresham Street, and was successful. In 1669 he built a fine large organ for St. Andrews, Undershaft." He was also engaged in 1693 to keep in order the organ in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, at a yearly salary of £3.