Joseph Pring

JOSEPH PRING, born at Kensington, Jan. 15, 1776, was on April I, 1793 appointed organist of Bangor Cathedral on the resignation of Olive, but not formally elected until Sept. 28, 1810. In 1805 he published 'Twenty Anthems,' and on Jan. 27, 1808 accumulated the degrees of Mus. Bac. and Mus. Doc. at Oxford. In June 1813 he and three of the vicars-choral of Bangor Cathedral presented a petition to the Court of Chancery ^ for the proper application of certain tithes which had, by an act of Parliament passed in 1685, been appropriated for the maintenance of the cathedral choir, but had been diverted by the capitular body to other purposes. The suit lasted until 1819, when Lord Chancellor Eldon, setting at naught the express provisions of the Act, sanctioned a scheme, which indeed gave to the organist and choir increased stipends, but yet kept them considerably below the amounts they would have received if the Act had been fully carried out. Dr. Pring, in 1819, printed copies of the proceedings in the suit, and other documents, with annotations, forming a history of the transactions, which has long been a scarce book. He died at Bangor, Feb. 13, 1842.

 --- Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 3