Samuel Sebastian Wesley

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was an English organist and composer. Wesley married Mary Anne Merewether and had six children. He is often referred to as S.S. Wesley to avoid confusion with his father Samuel Wesley.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Samuel Sebastian Wesley.

From the period sources

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was a notable English organist and teacher, whose influence extended to several prominent musicians of his era. Francis Edward Gladstone, a noted English organist, was a pupil of S. Wesley from 1859 to 1864, according to A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900, 1905). Similarly, George Mursell Garrett, another organist, studied with Wesley and served as his assistant organist at Winchester Cathedral from 1851 to 1854 (Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., 1906). Edward Francis Rimbault, an erudite musician and historian, also completed his musical education under Samuel Wesley (Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, Vol. 7, 1866). Wesley’s teaching extended to figures like Walter Bond Gilbert, who studied organ playing and composition with him at Winchester Cathedral (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Vol. 2, 1889). His reputation as an organist was such that John Green, a London shop owner, engaged Samuel Wesley to give weekly performances on the newly introduced “Seraphine” instrument in 1833, though the instrument itself was described as “harsh and raspy in tone” and “never found favour with sensit[ive]” ears (Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, American Supplement, 1922).