John Baptist Grano
| John Baptist Grano | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1692 |
| Died | c. 1748 |
| Residence | London, England |
| Occupation | Trumpeter, flutist, composer |
| Known for | Imprisonment in the Marshalsea prison, 1728–1729 |
| Notable work | Dairy of John Baptist Grano, held in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Rawlinson D. 34) |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Thurman |
| Parent(s) | John Baptist Grano or Granom, Jane Villeneuve |
John Baptist Grano (c. 1692 – c. 1748) was an English trumpeter, flutist and composer, who worked with George Frederick Handel at the opera house in London's Haymarket.
Grano is best known for having been imprisoned for a debt of £99 in the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark from May 1728 until September 1729. He kept a diary of his time there, the manuscript of which is held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was published in 1998 as Handel's Trumpeter: The Diary of John Grano, edited by John Ginger, with a foreword by Crispian Steele-Perkins. The diary has become an important primary source of material about the Marshalsea. It details Grano's friendships, love affairs and adventures as he struggles to earn enough money to buy his freedom.
Grano's father, John Baptist Grano (also written Granom), and his mother Jane Villeneuve, originally from France, lived in London toward the end of the 17th century. An entry in the poor rate returns in 1698 places them in Angel Court, Charing Cross. John Ginger writes that the father may have been a regimental trumpeter in the Dutch Guards who travelled to England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when James II was overthrown.
The couple later moved to Pall Mall, where they ran a haberdasher's. Their first son, John Baptist, died in 1691, and their second son, the John Baptist of this article, was given the same name. There were three other children: Jane, born in 1697, Mary and a brother Lewis. The two brothers were both given a musical education.
Grano married Mary Thurman at St James Piccadilly on 30 July 1713. Ginger writes that the application for the marriage licence states that bride and groom were both over 21, though Mary was just 15 years old. The marriage produced one child and ended in or around 1719.
Ginger writes that, around 1709, Grano joined the orchestra in the Haymarket. He was paid 10 shillings per performance twice a week, playing the rest of the time in salons in Lincoln's Inn Fields or St James's Square, where he earned between two and four guineas an evening. The earliest record of him as a trumpeter is around 1711, when the Duchess of Shrewsbury hired him to play during a reception in the Lord Chamberlain's apartment at Kensington Palace.
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