7. A New Prosperity and More Settled Cathedral Liturgy (1700–40)

The eighteenth century brought marked changes to both the choir and the congregation. Lay clerks found new opportunities, and the cathedral became a social space for the upper classes—a place to meet people, and talk. Services continued much as before, but a Sunday morning concert was started, and thanksgiving services for military victories were important national events and marked with festivity in Worcester. An unfortunate organist appointment by the chapter caused them recurrent problems, but later the choristers were better taught when they were managed by the musician William Davis. Many in Worcester longed for the return of the Stuart dynasty, and the Jacobites included members of the cathedral choir. Certain occasions triggered unrest between Jacobites in the city and the largely Hanoverian council, and this was only to settle after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746.