Christoph (No. 13).

29. Joh. Nicolaus, 1669-1740. 30. Joh. Christoph ... 31. Joh. Friedrich ... 32. Joh. Michael ...

Children of Joh. Michael (No. 14).

33. Joh. Ludwig 1677-1730. Maria Barbara (first wife of Joh. Sebastian).

Sons of Joh Christoph (No. 17).

34. Joh. Samuel, 1694 ... 35. Joh. Christian, 1696 ...

36. Joh. Günther ...

Son of Joh. Bernhard (No. 18).

37. Joh. Ernst, 1722-1781.

Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 19).

38. Joh. Friedrich, 1703 ... 39. Joh. August, 17 ...

40. Wilhelm Hieronymus, 17 ...

Sons of Joh. Valentin (No. 21).

41. Joh. Lorenz, 1695 ... 42. Joh. Elias, 1705-1755. 43. Joh. Heinrich ...

Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 24).

44. Joh. Friedrich, 1695 ... 45. Joh. Bernhard, 1700-1742(?) 46. Joh. Christoph, 1702-1756. 47. Joh. Heinrich, 1707 ... 48. Joh. Andreas, 1713-175—.

Sons of Joh. Sebastian (No. 26).

49. Wilhelm Friedemann, 1710-1784. 50. Joh. Christoph and a twin brother, 1713 + same year. 51. Carl Philipp Emanuel, 1714-1788. 52. Joh. Gottfried Bernhard, 1715-1739. 53. Leopold August, 1718-1719. 54. Gottfried Heinrich, 1724-1736(?). 55. Christian Gottlieb, 1725-1728. 56. Ernst Andreas, 1727 + same year. 57. Joh. Christoph Friedrich, 1732-1795. 58. Joh. Aug. Abraham, 1733-1734. 59. Joh. Christian, 1735-1782. 60. (8 daughters).

Johann (No. 4) was born at Wechmar. He was apprenticed to the town piper of Suhl and became organist at Schweinfurt. In 1635 he married the daughter of his former master, and became director of the town musicians at Erfurt. During the time he was there the city was suffering terribly from the effects of pillage and quartering of soldiers, poverty and disorder; yet Johann Bach managed to found a family which multiplied rapidly, and soon filled all the town musicians’ places, so that for some century and a half, and long after no more of the family lived in the place, the town musicians were known as “The Bachs.”

He married twice, his second wife being Hedwig Lämmerhirt.

He was organist of the Prediger Kirche at Erfurt, and was called by his contemporaries an “illustrious musician,” and he in a kind of way forestalled John Sebastian in being skilful in both sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental music.

The three towns of Erfurt, Arnstadt and Eisenach, now became the chief centres of the Bach family.

Christoph Bach (No. 5), the grandfather of Sebastian, born at Wechmar, entered the service of the Grand Duke of Weimar as lackey and musician. In 1642 he was a member of the Guild of Musicians at Erfurt, and in 1654 was Court and Town musician at Arnstadt, where his younger brother Heinrich was living. He does not seem ever to have been an organist, but a “Kunstpfeifer.”

During the Thirty Years’ War the town pipers and musicians had sunk very low in public estimation, and about the middle of the seventeenth century a strong effort was made by their various guilds to raise themselves to a more dignified position, in keeping with the worthiness of their calling. To this end they combined in drawing up a code of statutes, which was ratified by the Emperor Ferdinand III.;[1] the Bach family seem, however, to have kept aloof from this combination, and there is no doubt that they were better educated than the majority of town musicians.

Heinrich (No. 6) was appointed organist of the Franciscan Church at Arnstadt in 1641, which office he filled for fifty years. He suffered severely from the war, which disorganised everything, and his salary, like that of every one else, got into arrears. Moreover there were war taxes to be paid, and the soldiery seem to have robbed and plundered at their will. He petitioned the Count of Schwarzburg for his salary as he “knew not where to find bread for himself and his young family.” The Count ordered his salary to be paid, but the keeper of the funds immediately resigned. It is supposed that Bach managed to eke out his existence by cultivating a small plot of land which it was usual to give to organists in Thuringia as part of their salary. He kept to his pious and simple life all through the horrors of the times, (which reduced the mass of the people to a state of coarseness and immorality), and brought up six children, three of whom became famous musicians in their day. In the funeral sermon preached by Olearius, he is mentioned as the composer of chorales, motets, concertos, fugues and preludes, but few of his compositions have been preserved.

Johann Christian Bach (No. 7), a viola player and music director, belonged to Erfurt, whence he went to Eisenach, being the first of his family to settle there.

Johann Ægidius Bach (No. 8) became director of the town musicians and alto-viola player at Erfurt in succession to his brother Joh. Christian (No. 7) and his cousin Ambrosius (No. 11) when they moved to Eisenach. Like several others of his clan he married the sister of his elder brother’s wife, and soon after became organist of St Michael’s Church, which post he held to an advanced age.

John Nicolaus Bach (No. 9) was a town musician and good performer on the viola-da-gamba. He died of the plague in 1682.

Georg Christoph Bach (No. 10), born at Erfurt, was an usher in a school at Heinrichs near Suhl, but became cantor, first at Themar, near Meiningen, and afterwards at Schweinfurt, where he died. He was a composer, but his works are all lost.

Johann Ambrosius Bach (No. 11), the father of John Sebastian, was twin brother to Johann Christoph (No. 12). The two brothers had a most remarkable likeness, not only externally but in character and temperament. They were both violinists and played in exactly the same style; they thought and spoke alike, and their appearance was so similar that it is said their own wives could not distinguish them apart. They suffered from the same illnesses, and died within a few months of one another.

Ambrosius first settled at Erfurt as an alto-viola[2] player, and was elected a member of the Town Council. Here he married Elizabeth Lämmerhirt, the daughter of a furrier, and a relation of Hedwig the wife of Johann (No. 4). He now moved to Eisenach, and was succeeded at Erfurt by his cousin Ægidius (No. 8). He undertook the care of an idiot sister who died shortly afterwards, and for whom a funeral sermon was preached, in which the Bach brothers are